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FortiGate Security
Study Guide
for FortiOS 7.0
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1/26/2022
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Change Log 4
01 Introduction and Initial Configuration 5
02 Security Fabric 61
03 Firewall Policies 105
04 Network Address Translation (NAT) 152
05 Firewall Authentication 205
06 Logging and Monitoring 264
07 Certificate Operations 309
08 Web Filtering 361
09 Application Control 427
10 Antivirus 472
11 Intrusion Prevention and Denial of Service 520
12 SSL VPN 573
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Change Log
This table includes updates to the FortiGate Security 7.0 Study Guide dated 6/7/2021 to the updated document
version dated 1/26/2022.
Change Location
Various formatting fixes Entire Guide
l Removed slides: Administration Methods, basic CLI commands, Two Factor
Authentication, Link Aggregation
l Added Slides : Related to VDOMs
Lesson 1
Updated CLI command update-ffdb Lesson 3: Slide 15
Updated Mixing Policies slide example Lesson 5: Slide 37
Fixed notes Lesson 10: Slide 14
Fixed notes Lesson 11: Slide 8
Trim down SSL VPN content and added ZTNA section Lesson 12
FortiGate Security 7.0 Study Guide 4
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In this lesson, you will learn about FortiGate administration basics and the components within FortiGate that 
you can enable to extend functionality. This lesson also includes details about how and where FortiGate fits 
into your existing network architecture.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
FortiGate Security 7.0 Study Guide 5
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In this lesson, you will explore the topics shown on this slide.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
FortiGate Security 7.0 Study Guide 6
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in identifying the platform design features of FortiGate, FortiGate features in 
virtualized networks and the cloud, as well as the FortiGate security processing units, you will be able to 
describe the fundamental components of FortiGate and explain the types of tasks that FortiGate can perform.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
FortiGate Security 7.0 Study Guide 7
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In the past, the common way of protecting a network was securing the perimeter and installing a firewall at the 
entry point. Network administrators used to trust everything and everyone inside the perimeter.
Now, malware can easily bypass any entry-point firewall and get inside the network. This could happen 
through an infected USB stick, or an employee’s compromised personal device being connected to the 
corporate network. Additionally, because attacks can come from inside the network, network administrators 
can no longer inherently trust internal users and devices.
What’s more, today’s networks are highly complex environments whose borders are constantly changing.
Networks run vertically from the LAN to the internet, and horizontally from the physical network to a private 
virtual network and to the cloud. A mobile and diverse workforce (employees, partners, and customers) 
accessing network resources, public and private clouds, the IoT, and BYOD programs all conspire to increase 
the number of attack vectors against your network.
In response to this highly complex environment, firewalls have become robust multifunctional devices that 
counter an array of threats to your network. Thus, FortiGate can act in different modes or roles to address 
different requirements. For example, FortiGate can be deployed as a data center firewall whose function is to 
monitor inbound requests to servers and to protect them without increasing latency for the requester. Or, 
FortiGate can be deployed as an internal segmentation firewall as a means to contain a network breach.
FortiGate can also function as DNS and DHCP servers, and be configured to provide web filter, antivirus, and 
IPS services.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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In the architecture diagram shown on this slide, you can see how FortiGate platforms add strength, without 
compromising flexibility. Like separate, dedicated security devices, FortiGate is still internally modular. Plus:
• Devices add duplication. Sometimes, dedication doesn’t mean efficiency. If it’s overloaded, can one 
device borrow free RAM from nine others? Do you want to configure policies, logging, and routing on 10 
separate devices? Does 10 times the duplication bring you 10 times the benefit, or is it a hassle? For 
smaller to midsize businesses or enterprise branch offices, unified threat management (UTM) is often a 
superior solution, compared to separate dedicated appliances.
• FortiGate hardware isn’t just off-the-shelf. It’s carrier-grade. Most FortiGate models have one or more 
specialized circuits, called ASICs, that are engineered by Fortinet. For example, a CP or NP chip handles 
cryptography and packet forwarding more efficiently. Compared to a single-purpose device with only a 
CPU, FortiGate can have dramatically better performance. This is especially critical for data centers and 
carriers where throughput is business critical.
(The exception? Virtualization platforms—VMware, Citrix Xen, Microsoft, or Oracle Virtual Box—have 
general-purpose vCPUs. But, virtualization might be worthwhile because of other benefits, such as 
distributed computing and cloud-based security.)
• FortiGate is flexible. If all you need is fast firewalling and antivirus, FortiGate won’t require you to waste 
CPU, RAM, and electricity on other features. In each firewall policy, you can enable or disable UTM and 
next-generation firewall modules. Also, you won’t pay more to add VPN seat licenses later. 
• FortiGate cooperates. A preference for open standards instead of proprietary protocols means less 
vendor lock-in and more choice for system integrators. And, as your network grows, FortiGate can 
leverage other Fortinet products, such as FortiSandbox and FortiWeb, to distribute processing for deeper 
security and optimal performance—a total Security Fabric approach. 
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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FortiGate virtual machines (VMs) have the same features as physical FortiGate devices, except for hardware 
acceleration. Why? First, the hardware abstraction layer software for hypervisors is made by VMware, Xen, 
and other hypervisor manufacturers, not by Fortinet. Those other manufacturers don’t make Fortinet’s 
proprietary SPU chips. But there is another reason, too. The purpose of generic virtual CPUs and other virtual 
chips for hypervisors is to abstract the hardware details. That way, all VM guest OSs can run on a common 
platform, no matter the different hardware on which the hypervisors are installed. Unlike vCPUs or vGPUs that 
use generic, non-optimal RAM and vCPUs for abstraction, SPU chips are specialized optimized circuits.Therefore, a virtualized ASIC chip would not have the same performance benefits as a physical SPU chip.
If performance on equivalent hardware is less, you may wonder, why would anyone use a FortiGate VM? In 
large-scale networks that change rapidly and may have many tenants, equivalent processing power and 
distribution may be achievable using larger amounts of cheaper, general purpose hardware. Also, trading 
some performance for other benefits may be worth it. You can benefit from faster network and appliance 
deployment and teardown.
FortiGate VMX and the FortiGate Connector for Cisco ACI are specialized versions of FortiOS and an API that 
allow you to orchestrate rapid network changes through standards, such as OpenStack for software-defined 
networking (SDN). 
• FortiGate VM is deployed as a guest VM on the hypervisor.
• FortiGate VMX is deployed inside the virtual networks of a hypervisor, between guest VMs. 
• FortiGate Connector for Cisco ACI allows ACI to deploy physical or virtual FortiGate VMs for north-south 
traffic.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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All Fortinet hardware acceleration hardware has been renamed security processing units (SPUs). This 
includes NPx and CPx processors. 
Most FortiGate models have specialized acceleration hardware, called SPUs that can offload resource-
intensive processing from main processing (CPU) resources. Most FortiGate devices include specialized 
content processors (CPs) that accelerate a wide range of important security processes, such as virus 
scanning, attack detection, encryption, and decryption. (Only selected entry-level FortiGate models do not 
include a CP processor.)
SPU and nTurbo data is now visible in a number of places on the GUI. For example, the Active Sessions
column pop-up in the firewall policy list and the Sessions dashboard widget. Per-session accounting is a 
logging feature that allows FortiGate to report the correct bytes per packet numbers per session for sessions 
offloaded to an NP7, NP6 or NP6lite processor.
The following example shows the Sessions dashboard widget tracking SPU and nTurbo sessions. Current 
sessions shows the total number of sessions, SPU shows the percentage of these sessions that are SPU 
sessions, and Nturbo shows the percentage that are nTurbo sessions.
NTurbo offloads firewall sessions that include flow-based security profiles to NP6 or NP7 network processors. 
Without NTurbo, or with NTurbo disabled, all firewall sessions that include flow-based security profiles are 
processed by the FortiGate CPU. 
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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The Fortinet content processor (CP9) works outside of the direct flow of traffic, providing high-speed 
cryptography and content inspection services. This frees businesses to deploy advanced security whenever it 
is needed without impacting network functionality. CP8 and CP9 provide a fast path for traffic inspected by 
IPS, including sessions with flow-based inspection. 
CP processors also accelerate intensive proxy-based tasks:
• Encryption and decryption (SSL)
• Antivirus
FortiSPU network processors work at the interface level to accelerate traffic by offloading traffic from the main 
CPU. Models that support FortiOS 6.4 or later contain NP6, NP6lite, and NP7 network processors. 
Fortinet integrates content and network processors along with a RISC-based CPU into a single processor 
known as SoC4 for entry-level FortiGate security devices used for distributed enterprises. This simplifies 
device design and enables breakthrough performance without compromising on security.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Good job! You now understand some of the high-level features of FortiGate. 
Now, you will learn how to perform the initial setup of FortiGate and learn about why you might decide to use 
one configuration over another.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in setting up FortiGate, you will be able to use the device effectively in your 
own network.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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What about the network architecture? Where does FortiGate fit in?
When you deploy FortiGate, you can choose between two operating modes: NAT mode or transparent mode.
• In NAT mode, FortiGate routes packets based on Layer 3, like a router. Each of its logical network 
interfaces has an IP address and FortiGate determines the outgoing or egress interface based on the 
destination IP address and entries in its routing tables.
• In transparent mode, FortiGate forwards packets at Layer 2, like a switch. Its interfaces have no IP 
addresses and FortiGate identifies the outgoing or egress interface based on the destination MAC address. 
The device in transparent mode has an IP address used for management traffic.
Interfaces can be exceptions to the router versus switch operation mode, on an individual basis.
When you enable virtual domains (VDOMs) on FortiGate, you can configure each VDOM for NAT mode or 
transparent mode, regardless of the operation mode of other VDOMs on FortiGate. By default, VDOMs are 
disabled on the FortiGate device, but there is still one VDOM active: the root VDOM. It is always there in the 
background. When VDOMs are disabled, the NAT mode or transparent mode relates to the root VDOM.
VDOMs are a method of dividing a FortiGate device into two or more virtual devices that function as multiple 
independent devices. VDOMs can provide separate firewall policies and, in NAT mode, completely separate 
configurations for routing and VPN services for each connected network or organization. In transparent mode, 
VDOM applies security scanning to traffic and is installed between the internal network and the external
network.
By default, a VDOM is in NAT mode when it is created. You can switch it to transparent mode, if required.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Network address translation (NAT) mode is the default operation mode. What are the other factory default 
settings? After you’ve removed FortiGate from its box, what do you do next?
Now you’ll take a look at how you set up FortiGate.
Attach your computer network cable to port1 or the internal switch ports (on the entry-level model). For high-
end and mid-range models, connect to the MGMT interface. In most entry-level models, there is a DHCP 
server on that interface, so, if your computer’s network settings have DHCP enabled, your computer should 
automatically get an IP, and you can begin setup. 
To access the GUI on FortiGate or FortiWifi, open a web browser and visit https://192.168.1.99. 
The default login information is public knowledge. Never leave the default password blank. Your network is 
only as secure as your FortiGate admin account. Once you logged in with default login details, you'll see a 
message to change the default blank password for the admin user password. Before you connect FortiGate to 
your network, you should set a complex password. You’ll also be asked to apply additional configuration such 
as hostname, dashboard setup, register with FortiCare, and so on.
All FortiGate models have a console port and/or USB management port. The port provides CLI access without 
a network. You can access the CLI using the CLI console widget on the GUI, or from a terminal emulator, 
such as PuTTY or Tera Term.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Some FortiGate services connect to other servers, such as FortiGuard, in order to work. FortiGuard 
Subscription Services provide FortiGate with up-to-date threat intelligence. FortiGate uses FortiGuard by:
• Periodically requesting packages that contain a new engine and signatures
• Querying the FDN on an individual URL or host name
By default, the FortiGuard server location is set to anywhere FortiGate selects a server based on server load, 
from any part of the world. However, you have the option to change the FortiGuard server location to USA. In 
this case, FortiGate selects a USA-based FortiGuard server.
Queries are real-time; that is, FortiGate asks the FDN every time it scans for spam or filtered websites. 
FortiGate queries, instead of downloading the database, because of the size and frequency of changes that 
occur to the database. Also, you can select queries to use UDP or HTTPs for transport; the protocols are not 
designed for fault tolerance, but for speed. So, queries require that your FortiGate device has a reliable 
internet connection.
Packages, like antivirus and IPS, are smaller and don't change as frequently, so they are downloaded (in 
many cases) only once a day. They are downloaded using TCP for reliable transport. After the database is 
downloaded, their associated FortiGate features continue to function, even if FortiGate does not have reliable 
internet connectivity. However, you should still try to avoid interruptions during downloads—if your FortiGate 
device must try repeatedly to download updates, it can’t detect new threats during that time.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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In FortiOS 6.4 or later, third-party SSL certificate verification and OCSP stapling check has been implemented 
for all FortiGuard servers. By default, the FortiGuard access mode is anycast on FortiGate, to optimize the 
routing performance to the FortiGuard servers. The FortiGuard server has one IP address to match its domain 
name. FortiGate connects with a single server address, regardless of where the FortiGate device is located. 
The domain name of each FortiGuard service is the common name in the certificate of that service. The 
certificate is signed by a third-party intermediate CA. The FortiGuard server uses the Online Certificate Status 
Protocol (OCSP) stapling technique, so that FortiGate can always validate the FortiGuard server certificate 
efficiently. FortiGate will complete the TLS handshake only with a FortiGuard server that provides 
a good OCSP status for its certificate. Any other status results in a failed SSL connection. 
The FortiGuard servers query the OCSP responder of the CA every four hours and update its OCSP status. If 
FortiGuard is unable to reach the OCSP responder, it keeps the last known OCSP status for seven days. 
FortiGate aborts the connection to the FortiGuard server if:
• The CN in the server certificate does not match the domain name resolved from the DNS.
• The OCSP status is not good.
• The issuer-CA is revoked by the root-CA.
The FortiGuard access mode anycast setting forces the rating process to use protocol HTTPS, and port 443. 
The table on this slide shows a list of some of the FortiGuard servers and their domain names and IP 
addresses.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Good job! You now understand how to perform the initial setup of FortiGate and why you might decide to use 
one configuration over another. Now, you will learn about basic administration.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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After completing this lesson, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in basic administration, you will be able to better manage administrative users 
and implement stronger security practices around administrative access.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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Whichever method you use, start by logging in as admin. Begin by creating separate accounts for other 
administrators. For security and tracking purposes, it is a best practice for each administrator to have their 
own account.
In the Create New drop-down list, you can select either Administrator or REST API Admin. Typically, you 
will select Administrator and then assign an Administrator Profile, which specifies that user’s 
administrative permissions. You could select REST API Admin to add an administrative user who would use 
a custom application to access FortiGate with a REST API. The application would allow you to log in to 
FortiGate and perform any task that your assigned Administrator Profile permits.
Other options not shown here, include:
• Instead of creating accounts on FortiGate itself, you could configure FortiGate to query a remote 
authentication server. 
• In place of passwords, your administrators could authenticate using digital certificates that are issued by 
your internal certification authority server.
If you do use passwords, ensure that they are strong and complex. For example, you could use multiple 
interleaved words with varying capitalization, and randomly insert numbers and punctuation. Do not use short 
passwords, or passwords that contain names, dates, or words that exist in any dictionary. These are 
susceptible to brute force attack. To audit the strength of your passwords, use tools such as L0phtcrack 
(http://www.l0phtcrack.com/) or John the Ripper (http://www.openwall.com/john/). Risk of a brute force attack 
is increased if you connect the management port to the internet.
In order to restrict access to specific features, you can assign permissions. 
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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When assigning permissions to an administrator profile, you can specify read-and-write, read-only, or none to 
each area.
By default, there is a special profile named super_admin, which is used by the account named admin. You 
can't change it. It provides full access to everything, making the admin account similar to a root superuser
account.
The prof_admin is another default profile. It also provides full access, but unlike super_admin, it applies only 
to its virtual domain—not the global settings of FortiGate. Also, you can change its permissions.
You aren’t required to use a default profile. You could, for example, create a profile named auditor_access
with read-only permissions. Restricting a person’s permissions to those necessary for his or her job is a best 
practice, because even if that account is compromised, the compromise to your FortiGate device (or network) 
is not total. To do this, create administrator profiles, then select the appropriate profile when configuring an 
account.
The Override Idle Timeout feature allows the admintimeout value, under config system accprofile, to 
be overridden per access profile. You can configure administrator profiles to increase inactivity timeout and 
facilitate use of the GUI for central monitoring.
Note that you can do this on a per-profile basis, to prevent the option from being unintentionally set globally.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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What are the effects of administrator profiles?
It’s actually more than just read or write access.
Depending on the type of administrator profile that you assign, an administrator may not be able to access the 
entire FortiGate device. For example, you could configure an account that can view only log messages. 
Administrators may not be able to access global settings outside theirassigned virtual domain either. Virtual 
domains (VDOMs) are a way of subdividing the resources and configurations on a single FortiGate. 
Administrators with a smaller scope of permissions cannot create, or even view, accounts with more 
permissions. So, for example, an administrator using the prof_admin or a custom profile cannot see, or reset 
the password of accounts that use the super_admin profile.
Introduction and Initial Configuration
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To further secure access to your network security, use two-factor authentication.
Two-factor authentication means that instead of using one method to verify your identity—typically a password 
or digital certificate—your identity is verified by two methods. In the example shown on this slide, two-factor 
authentication includes a password plus an RSA randomly generated number from a FortiToken that is 
synchronized with FortiGate.
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What happens if you forget the password for your admin account, or a malicious employee changes it?
This recovery method is available on all FortiGate devices and even some non-FortiGate devices, like 
FortiMail. There is no maintainer procedure in the VM. The administrator must revert to a snapshot or 
reprovision the VM and restore the configuration. It’s a temporary account, only available through the local 
console port, and only after a hard reboot—disrupting power by unplugging or turning off the power, then 
restoring it. You must physically shut off FortiGate, then turn it back on, not reboot it through the CLI.
The maintainer login is available for login only for about 60 seconds after the restart completes (or less 
time on older models). 
If you cannot ensure physical security, or have compliance requirements, you can disable the maintainer
account. Use caution if you disable maintainer and then lose your admin password, because you cannot 
recover access to your FortiGate device. In order to regain access in this scenario, you will need to reload the 
device. This will reset to the device to its factory default settings.
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Another way to secure FortiGate is to define the hosts or subnets that are trusted sources from which to log 
in.
In this example, we have configured 10.0.1.10 as the only trusted IP for admin from which admin logs in. If 
admin attempts to log in from a machine with any other IP, they will receive an authentication failure 
message.
Note that If trusted hosts are configured on all administrators and an administrator is trying to log in from an IP 
address that is not set on any of the trusted hosts for any administrators, then the administrator will not get the 
login page but rather will receive the message: “Unable to contact server”. 
If you leave any IPv4 address as 0.0.0.0/0, it means that connections from any source IP will be allowed.
By default, 0.0.0.0/0 is the configuration for the administrator, although you may want to change this.
Notice that each account can define its management host or subnet differently. This is especially useful if you
are setting up VDOMs on FortiGate, where the VDOM administrators may not even belong to the same 
organization. Be aware of any NAT that occurs between the desired device and FortiGate. You can easily 
prevent an administrator from logging in from the desired IP address if it is later NATed to another address 
before reaching FortiGate, thus defeating the purpose of the trusted hosts.
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You may also want to customize the administrative protocols port numbers.
You can choose whether to allow concurrent sessions. You can use concurrent sessions to avoid accidentally 
overwriting settings, if you usually keep multiple browser tabs open, or accidentally leave a CLI session open 
without saving the settings, then begin a GUI session and accidentally edit the same settings differently.
For better security, use only secure protocols, and enforce password complexity and changes.
The Idle timeout settings specifies the number of minutes before an inactive administrator session times out 
(default is five minutes). A shorter idle timeout is more secure, but increasing the timer can help reduce the 
chance of administrators being logged out while testing changes.
You can override the idle timeout setting per administrator profile using the Override Idle Timeout setting.
You can configure an administrator profile to increase inactivity timeout and facilitate use of the GUI for central 
monitoring. The Override Idle Timeout setting allows the admintimeout value, under config system 
accprofile, to be overridden per access profile.
Note that you can do this on a per profile basis, to avoid the option from being unintentionally set globally.
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You’ve defined the management subnet—that is, the trusted hosts—for each administrator account. How do 
you enable or disable management protocols? 
This is specific to each interface. For example, if your administrators connect to FortiGate only from port3, 
then you should disable administrative access on all other ports. This prevents brute force attempts and also 
insecure access. Your management protocols are HTTPS, HTTP, PING, and SSH. By default, the HTTP and 
TELNET option is not visible on the GUI.
Consider the location of the interface on your network. Enabling PING on an internal interface is useful for 
troubleshooting. However, if it’s an external interface (in other words, exposed to the internet), then the PING 
protocol could expose FortiGate to a DoS attack. You should disable protocols that do not encrypt data flow, 
such as HTTP and TELNET. IPv4 and IPv6 protocols are separate. It’s possible to have both IPv4 and IPv6 
addresses on an interface, but only respond to pings on IPv6.
Security Fabric connection includes CAPWAP and FortiTelemetry. Protocols like FortiTelemetry are not for 
administrative access, but, like GUI and CLI access, they are protocols where the packets have FortiGate as 
a destination IP. Use the FortiTelemetry protocol specifically for managing FortiClient and the Security Fabric. 
Use the CAPWAP protocol for FortiAP, FortiSwitch, and FortiExtender when they are managed by FortiGate. 
Use the FMG-Access protocol specifically for communicating with FortiManager when that server is managing 
multiple FortiGate devices. Use the RADIUS accounting protocol when FortiGate needs to listen for and 
process RADIUS accounting packets for single sign-on authentication. FTM, or FortiToken Mobile push, 
supports second-factor authentication requests from a FortiToken mobile app. 
When you assign the interface roles LAN or WAN to the appropriate interfaces, your FortiGate uses the Link 
Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to detect if there’s an upstream FortiGate in your network. If FortiGate 
discovers an upstream FortiGate, you're prompted to configure the upstream FortiGate device to join the 
Security Fabric.
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FortiGate has hundreds of features. If you don’t use all of them, hiding features that you don’t use makes it 
easier to focus on your work.
Hiding a feature on the GUI does not disable it. It is still functional, and still can be configured using the CLI. 
Some advanced or less commonly used features, such as IPv6, are hidden by default. 
To show hidden features, click System > Feature Visibility.
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When FortiGate isoperating in NAT mode, every interface that handles traffic must have an IP address. When 
in NAT mode, FortiGate can use the IP address to source the traffic, if it needs to start or reply to a session, 
and as a destination address for devices trying to contact FortiGate or route traffic through it. There are 
multiple ways to get an IP address:
• Manually
• Automatically, using either DHCP or PPPoE (available on the CLI)
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FortiGate can use FortiIPAM to automatically assign IP addresses based on the configured network size for 
the FortiGate interface. FortiIPAM provides an on-premises IP address management solution when integrating 
network resources with FortiGate, and automatically assigns subnets to FortiGate to prevent duplicate IP 
addresses from overlapping within the same Security Fabric. Note that FortiIPAM is a paid service.
There is an exception to the IP address requirement: the One-Arm Sniffer interface type. This interfaces is
not assigned an address.
When you select One-Arm Sniffer by enabling a sniffer on the CLI, the interface is not inline with the traffic 
flow. Rather, it is receiving a copy of the traffic from a mirrored port on a switch. The interface operates in 
promiscuous mode, scanning traffic that it sees, but is unable to make changes because the original packet 
has already been processed by the switch. As a result, one-arm sniffer mode is mostly used in proof of 
concept (POC), or in environments where corporate requirements state that traffic must not be changed, only 
logged. Once it is enabled, a One-Arm Sniffer option appears in the Addressing mode setting of a interface.
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How many times have you seen network issues caused by a DHCP server—not client—enabled on the WAN 
interface? 
You can configure the interface role. The roles shown on the GUI are the usual interface settings for that part 
of a topology. Settings that do not apply to the current role are hidden on the GUI. (All settings are always 
available on the CLI regardless of the role.) This prevents accidental misconfiguration. 
For example, when the role is configured as WAN, there is no DHCP server and device detection 
configuration available. Device detection is usually used to detect devices internally on your LAN. 
If there is an unusual case, and you need to use an option that’s hidden by the current role, you can always 
switch the role to Undefined. This displays all options.
To help you remember the use of each interface, you can give them aliases. For example, you could call port3 
internal_network. This can help to make your list of policies easier to comprehend.
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Before you integrate FortiGate into your network, you should configure a default gateway.
If FortiGate gets its IP address through a dynamic method such as DHCP or PPPoE, then it should also 
retrieve the default gateway. 
Otherwise, you must configure a static route. Without this, FortiGate will not be able to respond to packets 
outside the subnets directly attached to its own interfaces. It probably also will not be able to connect to 
FortiGuard for updates, and may not correctly route traffic.
You should make sure that FortiGate has a route that matches all packets (destination is 0.0.0.0/0), known 
as a default route, and forwards them through the network interface that is connected to the internet, to the IP 
address of the next router. 
Routing completes the basic network settings that are required before you can configure firewall policies.
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Good job! You now have the knowledge needed to carry out some basic administrative tasks. Now, you’ll 
learn about built-in servers.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in implementing the DHCP and DNS built-in servers, you will know how to 
provide these services through FortiGate.
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Wireless clients are not the only ones that can use FortiGate as their DHCP server.
For an interface (such as port3), select the Manual option, enter a static IP, and then enable the DHCP 
Server option. Options for the built-in DHCP server appear, including provisioning features, such as DHCP 
options and IP address assignment rules. You can also block specific MAC addresses from receiving an IP 
address.
Note that the screenshot on the middle of the slide shows that you can create IP address assignment rules in 
the IP Address Assignment Rule section. 
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For the built-in DHCP server, you can reserve specific IP addresses for devices with specific MAC addresses. 
The action selected for Unknown MAC Addresses defines what the FortiGate DHCP server does when it 
gets a request from a MAC address that is not explicitly listed. The default action is Assign IP; however, you 
can change the default action type to Assign IP or Block.
• Assign IP: permits the DHCP server to assign from its pool of addresses to the identified MAC address. A 
device receiving an IP address will always receive the same address provided that its lease has not 
expired.
• Block: is the computer with the identified MAC address and the Block option will not receive an IP 
address.
• Reserve IP: allows you to bind a specific IP to a MAC address.
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You can configure FortiGate to act as your local DNS server. You can enable and configure DNS separately 
on each interface.
A local DNS server can improve performance for your FortiMail device or other devices that use DNS queries 
frequently. If your FortiGate device offers DHCP to your local network, you can use DHCP to configure those 
hosts to use FortiGate as both the gateway and DNS server.
FortiGate can answer DNS queries in one of three ways: 
• Forward: relays all queries to a separate DNS server (that you have configured in Network > DNS); that is, 
it acts as a DNS relay instead of a DNS server.
• Non-Recursive: replies to queries for items in the FortiGate DNS databases and does not forward 
unresolvable queries.
• Recursive: replies to queries for items in the FortiGate DNS databases and forwards all other queries to a 
separate DNS server for resolution.
You can configure all modes on the GUI or CLI.
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If you select Recursive, FortiGate queries its own database before forwarding unresolved requests to the 
external DNS servers.
If you select Forward to System DNS, you can control DNS queries within your own network, without having 
to enter any DNS names in the FortiGate DNS server.
If you choose to have your DNS server resolve queries, or you choose a split DNS, you must set up a DNS 
database on your FortiGate device. 
This defines the host names that FortiGate resolves queries for. Note that FortiGate currently supports only 
the DNS record types listed on this slide.
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Good job! You now know how to enable DHCP and DNS services on FortiGate, and have some 
understanding of configuration possibilities. Now, you will learn about VDOM concept.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objective shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in VDOMs, you will be able to understand the key benefits and use cases for 
VDOMs.
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What if, more than segmenting your network, you want to subdivide policies and administrators into multiple 
security domains?
In that case, you can enable FortiGate VDOMs, which split your FortiGate into multiple logical devices. Each 
VDOM has independent security policies and routing tables. Also, and by default, traffic from one VDOM 
cannot go to a different VDOM. This means that two interfaces in different VDOMs can share the same IP 
address, without any overlapping subnet problems.
When you use VDOMs, a single FortiGate device becomes a virtual data center of network security, UTM 
inspection, and secure communication devices.
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There are a few ways you can arrange your VDOMs. In the topology shown on this slide, each network 
accesses the internet through its own VDOM.
Notice that there are no inter-VDOM links. So, inter-VDOM traffic is not possible unless it physically leaves
FortiGate, toward the internet, and is rerouted back. This topology would be most suitable in a scenario where
multiple customers are sharing a single FortiGate, each in their own VDOM, with physically separated ISPs. 
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In the example topology shown on this slide, traffic again flows through a single pipe in the To_Internet
VDOM toward the internet. Traffic between VDOMs doesn’t need to leave FortiGate.
However, now inter-VDOM traffic doesn’t need to flow through the To_Internet VDOM. Inter-VDOM links 
between VDOMs allow more direct communication.
Similar to the previous example topology, inspection can be done by either the To_Internet or originating 
VDOM, depending on your requirements.
Because of the number of inter-VDOM links, the example shown on this slide is the most complex, requiring 
the most routes and firewall policies. Troubleshooting meshed VDOMs can also be more time consuming. 
However, meshed VDOMs also provide the most flexibility. For large businesses, inter-VDOM communication 
may be required. Also, inter-VDOM traffic performance may be better because of a shorter processing path,
which bypasses intermediate VDOMs.
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Until now, you've learned about traffic passing through FortiGate, from one VDOM to another. What about 
traffic originating from FortiGate?
Some system daemons, such as NTP and FortiGuard updates, generate traffic coming from FortiGate. One, 
and only one, of the VDOMs on a FortiGate device is assigned the role of the management VDOM. Traffic 
coming from FortiGate to those global services originates from the management VDOM. By default, the root 
VDOM acts as the management VDOM, but you can manually reassign this task to a different VDOM in multi-
vdom mode.
Similar to FortiGate without VDOMs enabled, the administrative VDOM should have outgoing internet access. 
Otherwise, features such as scheduled FortiGuard updates, fail.
It is important to note that the management VDOM designation is solely for traffic originated by FortiGate, 
such as FortiGuard updates, and has no effect on traffic passing through FortiGate. As such, the management 
function can be performed by any designated VDOM.
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Good job! You now understand some basic concepts about VDOMs.
Now, you will learn about fundamental maintenance.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in the basic maintenance of FortiGate, you will be able to perform the vital 
activities of backing up and restoring configurations, upgrading and downgrading firmware, and ensuring that 
FortiGate remains reliably in service throughout its lifecycle.
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Now that FortiGate has basic network settings and administrative accounts, you will learn how to back up the 
configuration. In addition to selecting the destination of the backup file, you can choose to encrypt or not to 
encrypt the backup file. Even if you choose not to encrypt the file, which is the default, the passwords stored in 
the file are hashed, and, therefore, obfuscated. The passwords that are stored in the configuration file would 
include passwords for the administrative users and local users, and preshared keys for your IPSec VPNs. It 
may also include passwords for the FSSO and LDAP servers.
The other option is to encrypt the configuration file with a password. Besides securing the privacy of your 
configuration, it also has some effects you may not expect. After encryption, the configuration file cannot be 
decrypted without the password and a FortiGate of the same model and firmware. This means that if you send 
an encrypted configuration file to Fortinet technical support, even if you give them the password, they cannot 
load your configuration until they get access to the same model of FortiGate. This can cause unnecessary 
delays when resolving your ticket.
If you enable virtual domains (VDOMs), subdividing the resources and configuration of your FortiGate device, 
each VDOM administrator can back up and restore their own configurations. You don’t have to back up the 
entire FortiGate configuration, however, it is still recommended.
Backups are needed to help speed up the return to production in the event of an unforeseen disaster that 
damages FortiGate. Having to recreate hundreds of policies and objects from scratch takes a significant 
amount of time, while loading a configuration file on a new device takes much less.
Restoring a configuration file is very similar to backing one up and restarts FortiGate.
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If you open the configuration file in a text editor, you’ll see that both encrypted and unencrypted configuration 
files contain a cleartext header that contains some basic information about the device. The example on this 
slide shows what information is included. To restore an encrypted configuration, you must upload it to a 
FortiGate device of the same model and firmware, then provide the password.
To restore an unencrypted configuration file, you are required to match only the FortiGate model. If the 
firmware is different, FortiGate will attempt to upgrade the configuration. This is similar to how it uses upgrade 
scripts on the existing configuration when upgrading firmware. However, it is still recommended to match the 
firmware on FortiGate to the firmware listed in the configuration file.
Usually, the configuration file contains only non-default settings, plus few default, yet crucial, settings. This 
minimizes the size of the backup, which could otherwise be several megabytes in size.
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You can view the current firmware version in multiple places on the FortiGate GUI. When you first log in to 
FortiGate, the landing page is the dashboard. You can see the firmware version in the System widget. This 
information is also found at System > Firmware. And, of course, you can retrieve the information on the CLI 
using the command get system status. 
If a new version of the firmware is available, you are notified on the dashboard and on the Firmware page. 
Remember to read the Release Notes to make sure that you understand the supported upgrade path. The 
Release Notes also provide pertinent information that may affect the upgrade.
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Upgrading the firmware on FortiGate is simple. Click System > Firmware, and then browse to the firmware 
file that you have downloaded from support.fortinet.com or choose to upgrade online.
If you want to do a clean installation by overwriting both the existing firmware and its current configuration, 
you can do this using the local console CLI, within the boot loader menu, while FortiGate is rebooting. 
However, this is not the usual method. 
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You can also downgrade the firmware. Because settings change in each firmware version, you should have a 
configuration file in the syntax that is compatible with the firmware.
Remember to read the Release Notes. Sometimes a downgrade between firmware versions that preserves 
the configuration is not possible. In that situation, the only way to downgrade is to format the disk, then 
reinstall.
After you’ve confirmed that the downgrade is possible, verify everything again, then start the downgrade. After 
the downgrade completes, restore a configuration backup that is compatible with that version. 
Why should you keep emergency firmware and physical access?
Earlier firmware versions do not know how to convert later configurations. Also, when upgrading through a 
path that is not supported by the configuration translation scripts, you might lose all settings except basic 
access settings, such as administrator accounts and network interface IP addresses. Another rare, but 
possible, scenario is that the firmware could be corrupted when you are uploading it. For all of those reasons, 
you should always have local console access during an upgrade. However, in practice, if you read the 
Release Notes and have a reliable connection to the GUI or CLI, it should not be necessary.
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in the lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how and where FortiGate fits into your 
network and how to perform basic FortiGate administration.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the Fortinet Security Fabric.
Security Fabric
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in deploying the Fortinet Security Fabric, using and extending the Security 
Fabric features, and understanding its topology, you will be able to use the Fortinet Security Fabric effectively 
in your network.
Security Fabric
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in understanding key concepts of the Fortinet Security Fabric, you will better 
understand the value of the Security Fabric, the servers that comprise it, and how to deploy it.
Security Fabric
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What is the Fortinet Security Fabric?
It is a Fortinet enterprise solution that enables a holistic approach to network security, whereby the network 
landscape is visible through a single console and all network devices are integrated into a centrally managed 
and automated defence.
The network devices include all components, from physical endpoints to virtual devices in the cloud. Because 
devices are centrally managed and are sharing threat intelligence with one another in real time, and are 
receiving updates from Fortinet at the macro level, your network can quickly identify, isolate, and neutralize 
threats as they appear.
The Security Fabric has the following attributes:
• Broad: It provides visibility of the entire digital attack surface to better manage risk
• Integrated: It provides a solution that reduces the complexity of supporting multiple point products
• Automated: Threat intelligence is exchanged between network components in real-time allowing for 
automated response to threats
A fourth attribute could be added to this description of the Security Fabric: open. The API and protocol are 
available for other vendors to join and for partner integration. This allows for communication between Fortinet 
and third-party devices.
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Why has Fortinet deemed the Security Fabric an essential solution for a robust network defence?
As networks evolved and various new types of threats surfaced, point security products were deployed to 
address these emerging threats. Often, these piecemeal solutions were effective, but deploying products 
using different standards and protocols meant that defence assets could not be effectively coordinated.
The illustration on the right side of the slide tells a story of a network that has deployed security solutions from 
four different vendors. The administrator at the center, working from the security console, has visibility into 
only some of the security solutions. This lack of visibility of the entire network defence is a serious flaw, and 
could allow a foreign infiltrator to breach network defences undetected.
The sheer complexity of today’s networks compounds this problem. In addition, increasingly sophisticated 
malware has an expanding attack surface on which to exploit, because networks have broken out of the 
confines of a traditional network perimeter and have expanded to virtualized networks and public clouds. Add 
to this mix, the ever growing numbers of unmanaged devices, as a result of BYOD programs, and you have 
the perfect security storm.
The most feasible solution is to build a centrally managed, holistic approach to security, whereby you have a 
clear line of sight to all potential infiltration points and can coordinate defences to contain and neutralize 
network breaches.
Security Fabric
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As shown on this slide, the Fortinet Security Fabric offers eight solutions: network access, security 
WLAN/LAN, public and private cloud infrastructure, applications, endpoint, security operations, open fabric 
ecosystem, and fabric management center. Each of these solutions is based on specific use cases and 
involve the integration of specific Fortinet products.
The Fortinet Security Fabric offers network security with FortiGate, IPS, VPN, SD-WAN. It also offers multi-
cloud strategy across public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, and software as a service (SaaS). It also 
offers quite a sophisticated endpoint offering ranging from the Fabric Agentall the way up to full endpoint 
protection, email security, web application security, secure access across distributed enterprises and SD-
WAN environments, advanced threat protection, management and analytics, and security information and 
event management (SIEM).
All of these are underscored and supported by FortiGuard Services, which deliver AI-powered intelligence and 
protection across the Security Fabric.
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FortiGate and FortiAnalyzer creates the core of the Security Fabric. To add more visibility and control, Fortinet 
recommends adding FortiManager, FortiAP, FortiClient, FortiSandbox, FortiMail, FortiWeb, FortiAI, and 
FortiSwitch. The solution can be extended by adding other network security devices.
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Good job! You now understand the basics of the Fortinet Security Fabric. 
Next, you’ll learn how to deploy the Security Fabric in your network environment.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in the deployment of the Fortinet Security Fabric, you will better understand the 
value of the Security Fabric and how it helps to manage all your network devices more efficiently.
Security Fabric
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In this simple network that comprises only the core devices of a Security Fabric, there is one FortiAnalyzer 
and one next-generation firewall (NGFW) FortiGate. This implementation example is intended to be a high-
level view only. For more detail, see docs.fortinet.com. The FortiGate device named External is acting 
as the edge firewall and will also be configured as the root firewall within the Security Fabric. Downstream 
from the root firewall there are three internal segmentation firewalls that compartmentalize the WAN in order 
to contain a breach and control access to various LANs. In this example, there are Accounting, Marketing, and 
Sales LANs. 
Security Fabric
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First, on the root FortiGate, you must enable Security Fabric Connection in the interfaces facing any 
downstream FortiGate. If you select Serve as Fabric Root, you also need to configure the FortiAnalyzer IP 
address. Then, you need to configure a fabric name for the Security Fabric. This FortiAnalyzer configuration 
will be pushed to all the downstream FortiGate devices. All downstream FortiGate devices send logs directly 
to FortiAnalyzer.
You can also preauthorize your downstream devices by adding the serial number of the device. When you 
add the serial number of a Fortinet device to the trusted list on the root FortiGate, the device can join the 
Security Fabric as soon as it connects. After you authorize the new FortiGate, additional connected FortiAP
and FortiSwitch devices automatically appear in the topology tree. On the topology tree, it's easier for you to 
authorize them with one click.
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The second step in implementing the Security Fabric is configuring the downstream Fortinet devices. On the 
downstream FortiGate devices, you must enable Security Fabric Connection and Device Detection on the 
interfaces facing the downstream FortiGate devices. On the Fabric Connectors page, select Join Existing 
Fabric and add the root (upstream) FortiGate IP address. The root FortiGate pushes its FortiAnalyzer
configuration to all downstream FortiGate devices.
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The third step in implementing the Security Fabric is to authorize the downstream FortiGate device on the 
both root FortiGate and the FortiAnalyzer. Click the serial number of the highlighted downstream FortiGate 
device and select Authorize. After few seconds, the downstream FortiGate will join the Security Fabric. In 
order to complete the full Security Fabric process, you will need to authorize all your devices on the 
FortiAnalyzer. From the FortiAnalyzer Device Manager section, select all your devices in the Security Fabric 
and click Authorize. After few seconds, you will notice all your authorized devices join the Security Fabric.
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When the Security Fabric is enabled, settings to sync various objects, such as addresses, services, and 
schedules, from the upstream FortiGate to all downstream FortiGate devices is enabled by default. 
Synchronization always happens from the root FortiGate to downstream FortiGate devices. Any object that 
can be synced will be available on downstream FortiGate devices after synchronization. 
The CLI command set fabric-object-unification is only available on the root FortiGate. When set 
to local, global objects will not be synchronized to downstream devices in the Security Fabric. The default 
value is default.
The CLI command set configuration-sync local is used when a downstream FortiGate doesn’t 
need to participate in object synchronization. When set to local on a downstream FortiGate, the device does 
not synchronize objects from the root, but will still participate in sending the synchronized object downstream.
You can also enable or disable per object synchronization in the Security Fabric. This option is not available 
for objects you create on a downstream FortiGate. Fabric synchronization is disabled by default for supported 
fabric objects, and these fabric objects are kept as locally created objects on all the FortiGate devices in the 
Security Fabric. If object synchronization is disabled on the root FortiGate, using the command set fabric-
object disable, firewall addresses and address groups will not be synchronized to downstream FortiGate
devices.
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If there is an object conflict during synchronization, you’ll get a notification to resolve the conflict. In the 
topology tree, Remote-FortiGate is highlighted in amber because there is a conflict.
In the example shown on this slide, you will examine how to resolve a syncing conflict.
1. The notification icon displays this message: Firewall objects are in conflict with other FortiGates in the 
fabric. Click Review firewall object conflicts.
2. On the Firewall Object Synchronization page, you can see that both the root FortiGate and downstream 
FortiGate devices contain the synn_add_1 object (with a different IP address/subnet schema on each 
device), causing a status of Content mismatch. In the Strategy field, there are two options to resolve the 
conflict: Automatic and Manual. If you select Automatic, as shown in this example, you can then click 
Rename All Objects.
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3. Remote-FortiGate is appended to the name of the downstream FortiGate device sync_Add_1 address 
object and the status has changed to Resolved. 
4. In the topology tree, none of the FortiGate devices are highlighted.
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There are two VDOM modes: split-vdom and multi-vdom. In split-vdom mode, FortiGate has two VDOMs in 
total, including root and FG-traffic vdoms. You cannot add VDOMs in split-vdom mode. 
1. split-vdom mode:
a) The root VDOM in split-vdom mode is the management VDOM and does only management work. The 
following navigation bar entries and pages are hidden in the root vdom:
• All Policy & Object entries
• User & Device, Security Profiles
• Traffic-related FortiView entries
• VPN entries• System > Fabric Connectors, Reputation, Feature Visibility, Object Tags entries
• Wan-Opt entries
• Most route entries
• Most log event entries
• Monitor entries
b) The FG-traffic VDOM can provide separate security policies and allow traffic through FortiGate.
2. In multi-vdom mode, you can create multiple VDOMs that function as multiple independent units. By 
default, the root is the management VDOM and can be used to do both management tasks and allow other 
traffic. You can select any VDOM to act as the management VDOM.
Security Fabric
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You can enable FortiGate Security Fabric in split-task VDOM mode. If you enable split-task VDOM mode on 
the upstream FortiGate device, it can allow downstream FortiGate devices to join the Security Fabric in 
the root and FG-traffic VDOMs. If split-task VDOM mode is enabled on the downstream FortiGate, it can
connect to the upstream FortiGate only through the downstream FortiGate interface on the root VDOM.
Telemetry settings are shown in both global and VDOM contexts, but in the VDOM context, only 
the topology and FortiTelemetry-enabled interface fields are shown.
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You can click Global > Physical Topology to see the root FortiGate and all downstream FortiGate devices 
that are in the same Security Fabric as the root FortiGate. You can click root > Physical Topology or FG-
Traffic > Physical Topology to see the root FortiGate and only the downstream FortiGate devices that are 
connected to the current selected VDOM on the root FortiGate.
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When you configure FortiGate devices in multi-vdom mode and add them to the Security Fabric, each VDOM 
with its assigned ports is displayed when one or more devices are detected. Only the ports with discovered 
and connected devices appear in the Security Fabric view and, because of this, you must enable Device 
Detection on ports you want to have displayed in the Security Fabric. VDOMs without ports with connected 
devices are not displayed. All VDOMs configured must be part of a single Security Fabric. In the example 
shown on this slide, the Local-FortiGate is configured in multi-VDOM mode, and has three VDOMs (root, 
VDOM1, and VDOM2), each with ports that have connected devices.
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Device identification is an important component in the Security Fabric. FortiGate detects most of the third-
party devices in your network and added into the topology view in the Security Fabric. There are two device
identification techniques: with an agent and without an agent (agentless). 
Agentless identification uses traffic from the device. Devices are indexed by their MAC address and there are 
various ways to identify devices, such as HTTP user-Agent header, TCP fingerprint, MAC address OUI, and 
FortiOS-VM detection methods, to name a few. Agentless device identification is only effective if FortiGate 
and the workstations are directly connected network segments, where traffic is sent directly to FortiGate, and 
there is no intermediate router or Layer 3 device between FortiGate and the workstations.
Note that FortiGate uses a first come, first served approach to determine the device identity. For example, if a 
device is detected by the HTTP user agent, FortiGate updates its device table with the detected MAC address 
and scanning stops as soon as the type has been determined for that MAC address.
Agent-based device identification uses FortiClient. FortiClient sends information to FortiGate, and the device 
is tracked by its unique FortiClient user ID (UID).
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By default, FortiGate uses device detection (passive scanning), which runs scans based on the arrival of 
traffic.
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Security Fabric
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Good job! You now know how to deploy the Security Fabric. 
Next, you’ll learn about Security Fabric features and how to extend the Security Fabric in your network 
environment.
Security Fabric
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in the extending the Fortinet Security Fabric, you will better understand the 
value of the Security Fabric and how it helps to manage all your network devices from a single point of device.
Security Fabric
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Fortinet recommends using a FortiManager for centralized management of all FortiGate devices and access 
devices in the Security Fabric. You can integrate FortiSwitch, and FortiAP devices to extend the Security 
Fabric down to the access layer. You can also extend the Security Fabric by integrating FortiMail, FortiWeb, 
FortiCache, FortiSandbox, and FortiClient EMS.
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Administrator-defined automated work flows (called stitches) use if/then statements to cause the FortiOS to 
automatically respond to an event in a preprogrammed way. Because this workflow is part of the Security 
Fabric, you can set up if/then statements for any device in the Security Fabric. However, the Security Fabric is 
not required to use stiches.
Each automation stitch pairs an event trigger and one or more actions. Automation stitches allow you to 
monitor your network and take appropriate action when the Security Fabric detects a threat. You can use 
Automation stitches to detect events from any source in the Security Fabric and apply actions to any 
destination.
You can configure the Minimum internal (seconds) setting to make sure you don’t receive repeat 
notifications about the same event. There are predefined stitches, triggers and actions available. However,
you can create custom automation based on the available options.
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You can configure the Compromised Host trigger to create an automated threat response stitch. This trigger 
uses indicator of compromise (IoC) event reporting from FortiAnalyzer. Based on the Threat level threshold 
setting, you can configure the stitch to take different remediation steps:
• Quarantine the compromised host at the FortiSwitch or FortiAP
• Quarantine FortiClient on the compromised host using FortiClient EMS
• Ban the IP
You can also click Monitor > Quarantine Monitor to view quarantined and banned IP addresses. 
Quarantined addresses are automatically removed from quarantine after a configurable period of time. 
Banned IP addresses can be removed from the list only by administrator intervention.
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You can also view compromised hosts on the FortiGate GUI and get output notifications in various ways such 
as iOS push. This feature is integrated with IFTT.
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External connectors allow you to integrate multi-cloud support, such as ACI and AWS, to name a few.
In an application-centric infrastructure (ACI), the SDN connector serves as a gateway bridging SDN 
controllers and FortiGate devices. The SDN Connector registers itself to APIC in the Cisco ACI fabric, polls 
interested objects, and translates them into address objects. The translated address objects and associated 
endpoints populate on FortiGate.
FortiGate VM for Microsoft Azure also supports cloud-init and bootstrapping.
Security Fabric
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The Security Fabric Status widget shows a visual summary of many of the devices in the Security Fabric. 
You can hover over the icons at the top of the widget to get a quick view of the status of the Security Fabric, 
including the status of FortiTelemetry and devices in the Security Fabric. You can click to authorize FortiAP
and FortiSwitch devices that are connected to an authorized FortiGate. 
Icons represent the other Fortinet devices that can be used in the Security Fabric:
• Devices in blue are connected in your network.
• Devices in gray are unauthorized devices that are connected in your network.
• Devices in red are not detected in your network, but are recommended for the Security Fabric.
• An attention icon indicates a FortiGate or FortiWiFi waiting for authorization.
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Security Fabric
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Good job! You now know how to extend the Security Fabric and its features. 
Next, you’ll learn about the Security Fabric Rating service and topology view.
Security Fabric
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in the Fortinet Security rating service and topology views, you should be able 
to have clear visibility of your network devices.
Security Fabric
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Security rating is a subscription service that requires a security rating license. This service now provides the 
ability to perform many best practices, including password checks, to audit and strengthen your network 
security. 
The Security Rating page is separated into three major scorecards: 
• Security Posture
• Fabric Coverage
• Optimization
These scorecards provide executive summaries of the three largest areas of security focus in the Security 
Fabric.
The scorecards show an overall letter grade and breakdown of the performance in sub-categories. Clicking a 
scorecard drills down to a detailed report of itemized results and compliance recommendations. 
The point score represents the net score for all passed and failed items in that area. The report includes the 
security controls that were tested against, linking to specific FSBP or PCI compliance policies. You can click 
FSBP and PCI to reference the corresponding standard.
In multi-VDOM mode, security rating reports can be generated in the Global VDOM for all of the VDOMs on 
the device. Administrators with read/write access can run the security rating report in the Global VDOM. 
Administrators with read-only access can only view the report.
On the scorecards, the Scope column shows the VDOM or VDOMs that the check was run on. On checks 
that support Easy Apply, the remediation can be run on all of the associated VDOMs.
The security rating event log is available on the root VDOM.
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Click the Security Posture scorecard on the Security Rating page to expand the scorecard and see more 
details.
The security posture service now supports the following:
• Customer rankings by percentile using security audit (FortiGuard data): Security rating now supports 
sending results to FortiGuard, and receiving statistics from FortiGuard. Results are displayed to customer 
in the form of percentile.
• Security audits running in the background, not just on demand, when an administrator is logged in to the 
GUI. When you view the security audit page, the latest saved security audit data is loaded. From the GUI, 
you can run audits on demand and view results for different devices in the Security Fabric. You can also 
view all results or just failed test results. 
• New security checks that can help you make improvements to your organization’s network. These results 
include enforcing password security, applying recommended login attempt thresholds, encouraging two-
factor authentication, and more.
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Security rating provides recommendation about FortiGate settings. These recommendations are shown as 
notifications on the settings page, which shows configuration issues as determined by security rating. An 
administrator can open the recommendation to see which configuration setting needs to be fixed. This helps 
administrator from going back and forth between the Security Fabric > Security Rating page and the 
various settings pages. 
In the examples shown on this slide, FortiGate is using default HTTPS and SSH ports, and administrator 
password policy is not enabled. Another recommendation is to restrict login access by configuring a trusted 
host.
Notifications appear either in the gutter, the footer, or as a mutable. Notifications can also be dismissed.
Security Fabric
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The security rating service reports the security posture score per the Security Fabric group. FortiGuard
Security Rating Service is a subscription-based service that takes the generated report and obtains analysis 
by FortiGuard. It compares security score results within the industry that the fabric group belongs to. All 
FortiGate devices in the group need to have FortiGuard Security Rating Service and the score can be 
obtained only on the Security Fabric root FortiGate. The score can be obtained after the security rating report 
is generated. The scores are presented as numbers and are based on the industry, the size of the 
organization, and the region.
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You can view the Security Fabric topology on the FortiGate GUI, from the Security Fabric menu. You can 
select the Physical Topology or Logical Topology view. To view the complete network, you must access 
the topology views on the root FortiGate in the Security Fabric. 
The Physical Topology view displays your network as a bubble chart of interconnected devices. These 
devices are grouped based on the upstream device they are connected to. The bubbles appear smaller or 
larger, based on their traffic volume. You can double-click any bubble to resize it and view more information 
about the device.
The Logical Topology view is similar to the Physical Topology view, but it shows the network interfaces, 
logical or physical, that are used to connect devices in the Security Fabric.
Security Fabric
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This slide shows the difference between the Physical Topology view and the Logical Topology view.
Security Fabric
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Security Fabric
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in the lesson.
Security Fabric
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to configure and use the Fortinet Security 
Fabric.
Security Fabric
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In this lesson, you will learn about firewall policies and how to apply them to allow and deny traffic 
passing through FortiGate. At its core, FortiGate is a firewall, so almost everything that it does to your 
traffic is linked to your firewall policies.
Firewall Policies
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section,you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in identifying the different components of firewall policies, and recognizing 
how FortiGate matches traffic with firewall policies and takes appropriate action, you will have a better 
understanding of how firewall policies interact with network traffic.
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To begin, you will learn about what firewall policies are.
Firewall policies define which traffic matches them and what FortiGate does when traffic does match.
Should the traffic be allowed? Initially, FortiGate bases this decision on simple criteria, such as the 
source of the traffic. Then, if the policy does not block the traffic, FortiGate begins a more computationally 
expensive security profile inspection—often known as unified threat management (UTM)—such as 
antivirus, application control, and web filtering, if you’ve chosen it in the policy. Those scans could block 
the traffic if, for example, it contains a virus. Otherwise, the traffic is allowed.
Will network address translation (NAT) be applied? Is authentication required? Firewall policies also 
determine the answers to these questions. After processing is finished, FortiGate forwards the packet 
toward its destination.
FortiGate looks for the matching firewall policy from top to bottom and, if a match is found, the traffic is 
processed based on the firewall policy. If no match is found, the traffic is dropped by the default Implicit 
Deny firewall policy.
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Each policy matches traffic and applies security by referring to the objects that you’ve defined, such as 
addresses and profiles.
What about other firewall policy types? Do IPv6 or virtual wire policies exist? Yes. These policies use 
slightly different objects that are relevant to their type. In this lesson, you will learn about IPv4 firewall 
policies, because they are the most common use case.
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When a packet arrives, how does FortiGate find a matching policy? Each policy has match criteria, which 
you can define using the following objects:
• Incoming Interface
• Outgoing Interface
• Source: IP address, user, internet services
• Destination: IP address or internet services
• Service: IP protocol and port number
• Schedule: Applies during configured times
When the traffic matches a firewall policy, FortiGate applies the action configured in the firewall policy. 
• If the Action is set to DENY, FortiGate drops the session. 
• If the Action is set to ACCEPT, FortiGate applies other configured settings for packet processing, 
such as antivirus scanning, web filtering, or source NAT.
For example, if you want to block incoming FTP to all but a few FTP servers, you would define the 
addresses of your FTP servers, select those as the destination, and select FTP as the service. You 
probably wouldn’t specify a source (often any location on the internet is allowed) or schedule (usually 
FTP servers are always available, day or night). Finally, you would set the Action setting to ACCEPT.
This might be enough, but often you’ll want more thorough security. Here, the policy also authenticates 
the user, scans for viruses, and logs blocked connection attempts. 
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To begin describing how FortiGate finds a policy for each packet, let’s start with the interface(s). 
Packets arrive on an incoming, or ingress, interface. Routing determines the outgoing, or egress, 
interface. In each policy, you must set a source and destination interface; even if one or both are set to 
any. Both interfaces must match the policy’s interface criteria in order to be a successful match. 
For example, if you configure policies between port3 (LAN) ingress and port1 (WAN) egress and a packet 
arrives on port2, the packet would not match your policies and, therefore, would be dropped because of 
the implicit deny policy at the end of the list. Even if the policy is from port3 (LAN) ingress to any egress, 
the packet would still be dropped because it did not match the incoming interface.
To simplify policy configuration, you can group interfaces into logical zones. For example, you could 
group port4 to port7 as a DMZ zone. You can create zones on the Interfaces page. However, you should 
note that you cannot reference an interface in a zone individually, and, if you need to add the interface to 
the zone, you must remove all references to that interface (for example, firewall policies, firewall 
addresses, and so on). If you think you might need to reference interfaces individually, you should set 
multiple source and destination interfaces in the firewall policy, instead of using zones. 
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By default, you can select only a single interface as the incoming interface and a single interface as the 
outgoing interface. This is because the option to select multiple interfaces, or any interface in a firewall 
policy, is disabled on the GUI. However, you can enable the Multiple Interface Policies option on the 
Feature Visibility page to disable the single interface restriction.
You can also specify multiple interfaces, or use the any option, if you configure a firewall policy on the 
CLI, regardless of the default GUI setting.
It is also worth mentioning that when you choose the any interface option, you cannot select multiple 
interfaces for that interface. In the example shown on this slide, because any is selected as the outgoing 
interface, you cannot add any additional interfaces, because any interface implies that all interfaces have 
already been selected. 
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The next match criteria that FortiGate considers is the packet’s source.
In each firewall policy, you must select a source address object. Optionally, you can refine your definition 
of the source address by also selecting a user, or a user group, which provides a much more granular 
match, for increased security. You can also select ISDB objects as the source in the firewall policy, which 
you will learn about later in this lesson.
When selecting a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as the source address, it must be resolved by 
DNS and cached in FortiGate. Make sure FortiGate is configured properly for DNS settings. If FortiGate 
is not able to resolve an FQDN address, it will present a warning message, and a firewall policy 
configured with that FQDN may not function properly.
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If a user is added as part of the source, FortiGate must verify the user before allowing or denying access 
based on the firewall policy. There are different ways that a user can authenticate. 
For local users, the username and password is configured locally on FortiGate. When a local user 
authenticates, the credentials that they enter must match the username and password configured locally 
on FortiGate. 
For a remote user (for example, LDAP or RADIUS), FortiGate receives the username and password from 
the remote user and passes this information to the authentication server. The authentication server 
verifies the user login credentials and updates FortiGate. After FortiGate receives that information, it 
grants access to the network based on the firewall policy.
A Fortinet single sign-on (FSSO) user's information is retrieved from the domain controller. Access is 
granted based on the group information on FortiGate. 
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In the example shown on this slide, source selectorsidentify the specific subnet and user group.
Remember, user is an optional object. The user object is used here to make the policy more specific. If 
you wanted the policy to match more traffic, you would leave the user object undefined.
You can also use internet service (ISDB) objects as a source in the firewall policy. There is an either/or 
relationship between internet service objects and source address objects in firewall policies. This means 
that you can select either a source address or an internet service, but not both.
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Like the packet’s source, FortiGate also checks the destination address for a match.
You can use address objects or ISDB objects as destinations in the firewall policy. The address object 
may be a host name, IP subnet, or range. If you enter an FQDN as the address object, make sure that 
you’ve configured your FortiGate device with DNS servers. FortiGate uses DNS to resolve those FQDN 
host names to IP addresses, which are what actually appear in the IP header.
You can select geographic addresses, which are groups or ranges of addresses allocated to a country, 
can be selected instead. You update these objects through FortiGuard.
Why is there is no option to select a user? The user identification is determined at the ingress interface, 
and packets are forwarded only to the egress interface after user authentication is successful.
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Internet Service is a database that contains a list of IP addresses, IP protocols, and port numbers used 
by the most common internet services. FortiGate periodically downloads the newest version of this 
database from FortiGuard. You can select these as Source or Destination in the firewall policy.
What happens if you need to allow traffic to only a few well-known public internet destinations, such as 
Dropbox or Facebook? 
When configuring your firewall policy, you can use Internet Service as the destination in a firewall policy,
which contains all the IP addresses, ports, and protocols used by that service. For the same reason, you 
cannot mix regular address objects with ISDB objects, and you cannot select services on a firewall policy. 
The ISDB objects already have services information, which is hardcoded.
Compared with address objects, which you need to check frequently to make sure that none of the IP 
addresses have changed or appropriate ports are allowed, internet services helps make this type of 
deployment easier and simpler.
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Geographic-based ISDB objects allow users to define a country, region, and city. These objects can be 
used in firewall policies for more granular control over the location of the parent ISDB object. 
ISDB objects are referenced in policies by name, instead of by ID.
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You can disable ISDB updates so they occur only during a change control window. Once ISDB updates 
are disabled, other scheduled FortiGuard updates for IPS, AV, and so on, do not update ISDB. By default, 
ISDB updates are enabled.
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Schedules add a time element to the policy. For example, you might use a policy to allow backup 
software to activate at night, or create a test window for a remote address that is allowed for testing 
purposes.
Schedules can be configured and use a 24-hour time clock. There are a few configuration settings worth 
mentioning:
• Recurring: If you enable All Day, traffic will be allowed for 24 hours for the days selected. When 
configuring recurring schedules, if you set the stop time earlier than the start time, the stop time will 
occur the next day. For example, if you select Sunday as the day, 10:00 as the start time, and 09:00 
as the stop time, the schedule will stop on Monday at 09:00. If the start and stop time are identical, the 
schedule will run for 24 hours.
• One-time: The start date and time must be earlier than the stop date and time. You can also enable 
Pre-expiration event log, which will generate an event log N number of days before the schedule 
expires, where N can be from 1 to 100 days. 
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Another criterion that FortiGate uses to match policies is the packet’s service.
At the IP layer, protocol numbers (for example, TCP, UDP, SCTP, and so on) together with source and 
destination ports, define each network service. Generally, only a destination port (that is, the server’s 
listening port) is defined. Some legacy applications may use a specific source port, but in most modern 
applications, the source port is randomly identified at transmission time, and therefore is not a reliable 
way to define the service.
For example, the predefined service object named HTTP is TCP destination port 80, and the predefined 
service object named HTTPS is TCP destination port 443. However, the source ports last for only a short 
time and, therefore, are not defined.
By default, services are grouped together to simplify administration by categories. If the predefined 
services don’t meet your organizational needs, you can create one or more new services, service groups, 
and categories.
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Good job! You now understand the components used in firewall policies and matching criteria used by 
FortiGate.
Now, you’ll learn how to configure firewall policies.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in configuring firewall policies, you will be able to apply the correct 
settings, such as security profiles, logging, and traffic shaping, to firewall policies on FortiGate, and make 
your network more secure. 
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When you configure a new firewall policy on the GUI, you must specify a unique name for the firewall 
policy because it is enabled by default, while it is optional on the CLI. This helps the administrator to 
quickly identify the policy that they are looking for. However, you can make this feature optional on the 
GUI on the Feature Visibility page by enabling Allow Unnamed Policies.
Note that if a policy is configured without a policy name on the CLI, and you modify that existing policy on 
the GUI, you must specify a unique name. The FortiGate flat GUI view allows you to select interfaces and 
other objects by clicking or dragging and dropping from the list populated on the right side.
You can select Internet Service as the source. Internet Service is a combination of one or more 
addresses and one or more services associated with a service found on the internet, such as an update 
service for software. 
There are many other options that you can configure in the firewall policy, such as firewall and network 
options, security profiles, logging options, and enabling or disabling a policy.
When creating firewall objects or policies, a universally unique identifier (UUID) attribute is added so that 
logs can record these UUIDs and improve functionality when integrating with FortiManager or 
FortiAnalyzer. 
When creating firewall policies, remember that FortiGate is a stateful firewall. As a result, you need to 
create only one firewall policy that matches the direction of the traffic that initiates the session. FortiGate 
will automatically remember the source-destination pair and allow replies.
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One of the most important features that a firewall policy can apply is security profiles, such as IPS and 
antivirus. A security profile inspects each packet in the traffic flow, where the session has already been 
conditionally accepted by the firewall policy.
When inspecting traffic, FortiGate can use one of two methods: flow-based inspection or proxy-based 
inspection. Different security features are supported by each inspection type.
Note that by default, the Video Filter, VOIP, and Web Application Firewall security profile option is not 
visible in the policy page on the GUI. You need to enable them on the Feature Visibility page.
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If you have enabled logging in the policy, FortiGate generates traffic logs after a firewall policy closes an 
IP session.
By default, Log Allowed Traffic is enabled and set to Security Events and generates logs for only the 
applied security profiles in the firewall policy. However, you can change the setting to All Sessions,
which generates logs for all sessions.
If you enable Generate Logs when Session Starts, FortiGate creates a traffic log when the session 
begins. FortiGate also generates a second log for the same session when it is closed. But remember that 
increasing logging decreases performance, so use it only when necessary.
During the session, if a security profile detects a violation, FortiGate records the attack log immediately. 
To reduce the number of log messages generated and improve performance, you can enable a session 
table entry of dropped traffic. This creates the denied session in the session table and, if the session is 
denied, all packets of that session are also denied. This ensures that FortiGate does not have to do a 
policy lookup for each new packet matching the denied session, which reduces CPU usage and log 
generation.
This option is in the CLI, and is called ses-denied-traffic. You can also set the duration for block 
sessions. This determines how long a session will be kept in the session table by setting block-
session-timer in the CLI. By default, it is set to 30 seconds. 
If the GUI option Generate Logs when Session Starts is not displayed, this means that your FortiGate 
device does not have internal storage. This option is on the CLI, regardless of internal storage, and is 
called set logtraffic-start enable.
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You can configure two types of traffic shapers: shared and per IP.
A shared shaper applies a total bandwidth to all traffic using that shaper. The scope can be per policy or 
for all policies referencing that shaper. FortiGate can count the packet rates of ingress and egress to 
police traffic.
FortiGate allows you to create three types of traffic shaping policies:
• Shared policy shaping: bandwidth management of security policies
• Per-IP shaping: bandwidth management of user IP addresses
• Application control shaping: bandwidth management by application
When creating traffic shaping policies, you must ensure that the matching criteria is the same as the 
firewall policies you want to apply shaping to. Note that these apply equally to TCP and UDP, and UDP 
protocols may not recover as gracefully from packet loss.
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By default, IPv4 and IPv6 policies are combined into a single consolidated policy, rather than creating and 
maintaining two different policy sets for IPv4 and IPv6.
You can share the Incoming Interface, Outgoing Interface, Schedule, and Service fields with both 
IPv4 and IPv6. For source addresses, destination addresses, and IP pool, you must select addresses for 
both IPv4 and IPv6. 
While configuring a consolidated firewall policy, you can configure a policy with IPv4 source addresses, 
IPv4 destination addresses, and an IPv4 IP pool, without specifying any IPv6 references. You can also 
configure the policy with the same behavior for IPv6. However, if you want to combine IPv4 and IPv6, you 
must select both IPv4 addresses and IPv6 addresses in the Source and Destination address fields in 
the firewall policy.The IP version of the sources and destinations in a policy must match. For example, a 
policy cannot have only an IPv4 source and an IPv6 destination. The policy table in the GUI can be 
filtered to show policies with IPv4, IPv6, or IPv4 and IPv6 sources and destinations.
Note that, by default, the IPv6 option is not visible in the policy table on the GUI. You must enable IPv6
on the Feature Visibility page. 
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Good job! You now understand how to configure firewall policies on FortiGate.
Next, you’ll learn how to manage and fine-tune settings for firewall policies.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in managing firewall policies, you will be able to understand the use of the 
policy ID of a firewall policy. Also, you will be able to pinpoint object usage, and simplify policies using 
object groups.
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Firewall policies appear in an organized list. The list is organized either in Interface Pair View or By 
Sequence.
Usually, the list will appear in Interface Pair View. Each section contains policies for that ingress-egress 
pair. Alternatively, you can view your policies as a single, comprehensive list by selecting By Sequence 
at the top of the page.
In some cases, you won’t have a choice of which view is used. 
If you use multiple source or destination interfaces, or the any interface in a firewall policy, you cannot 
separate policies into sections by interface pairs—some would be triplets or more. So instead, policies 
are then always displayed in a single list (By Sequence). 
To help you remember the use of each interface, you can give them aliases by editing the interface on 
the Network page. For example, you could call port1 ISP1. This can help to make your list of policies 
easier to understand.
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When you edit the policy, policy information will be visible.
This feature is very useful if an administrator wanted to check the policy usage, such as last used, first 
used, hit count, active sessions, and so on.
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An important concept to understand about how firewall policies work is the precedence of order, or, if you 
prefer a more recognizable term, first come, first served.
Policy IDs are identifiers. By default, policy IDs are not displayed on the policy list GUI. You can add a 
policy ID column using the Configure Table settings icon.
FortiGate automatically assigns a policy ID when you create a new firewall policy on the GUI. The policy 
ID never changes, even if you move the rule higher or lower in the sequence. 
If you enable Policy Advanced Options, then you can manually assign a policy ID, while creating a new 
policy. If a duplicate entry is found, the system produces an error, so you can assign a different available 
policy ID number.
Policy Advanced Options is not available on the GUI by default, you must enable it on the Feature 
Visibility page.
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To simplify administration, you can group service and address objects. Then, you can reference that 
group in the firewall policy, insteadof selecting multiple objects each time, or making multiple policies.
This slide shows that four services are used to configure the policy: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and DNS. DNS 
is used by browsers to resolve URLs to IP addresses because people remember domain names for 
websites instead of IP addresses. If you need to make many policies for web and FTP traffic, then it 
makes sense to create a service object named Web-FTP. That way, you don’t have to manually select all 
four services each time you make a policy. Policies can reference the Web-FTP service group instead.
Also, you can consolidate source addresses in source groups. 
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You've just seen several component objects that can be reused as you make policies. What if you want to 
delete an object?
If an object is being used, you can’t delete it. First, you must reconfigure the objects that are currently 
using it. The GUI provides a simple way to find out where in the FortiGate’s configuration an object is 
being referenced. Take a look at the numbers in the Ref column. They are the number of places where 
that object is being used. The number is actually a link, so if you click it, you can see which objects are 
using it.
In the example shown on this slide, the all address object is being used by the Training address group 
and three firewall policies. If you select a firewall policy, you can use the Edit, View List, and View 
Properties tabs.
• Edit: allows you to edit the selected object. In this example, it shows the edit page for the firewall 
policy ID 1.
• View List: allows you to view selected objects in its category. In this example, it will show you the list 
of all the firewall policies. 
• View Properties: shows where the object is used in that configuration. In this example, address object 
all is being used in the destination address and source address of that firewall policy.
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You can right-click any firewall policy to see different menu options to edit or modify the policy. The 
options include enabling or disabling a firewall policy, inserting firewall policies (above or below), copying 
and pasting policies, and cloning reverse (only if NAT is disabled on that policy). 
Clicking Edit in CLI opens the CLI console for the selected firewall policy or object. It shows the 
configured settings on the CLI and can modify the selected firewall policy or object directly on the CLI 
Console. 
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You can filter firewall policies on the GUI using filters in each column. You can add the ID column and 
then click the ID column filter icon to filter and search policies based on policy id numbers. You can click 
the Name filter icon to search policies based on policy name, and so on.
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Good job! You now understand how to manage firewall policies on FortiGate.
Now, you’ll learn about best practices and troubleshooting related to firewall policies.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in knowing firewall policy restrictions and using policy matching 
techniques, you will be able to apply best practices and basic troubleshooting techniques when working 
with firewall policies.
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When configuring names for firewall objects, only specific characters are supported. For example, 
Training(LAN) is not a valid name for an address object because it includes special characters that 
are not supported. Although spaces are supported in the names, as a best practice, avoid using spaces 
in names. Instead, use a hyphen or underscore. Using spaces can cause issues when trying to modify on 
the CLI, or troubleshooting.
However, many special characters are supported in passwords, comments, replacement messages, and 
so on.
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Always plan a maintenance window and create a test case for a few IP addresses and users, before 
implementing configuration changes in the production network. Any configuration changes made using 
the GUI or CLI take effect immediately, and can interrupt service.
As a best practice, try to configure firewall policies as specifically as possible. This helps to restrict 
access to only those resources. For example, use correct subnets when configuring address objects. 
Another setting worth mentioning is security profiles. Security profiles help to provide appropriate security 
for your network. Proper logging configuration can also help you to analyze, diagnose, and resolve 
common network issues. 
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Remember you learned that only the first matching policy applies? Arranging your policies in the correct 
position is important. It affects which traffic is blocked or allowed. In the section of the applicable interface 
pair, FortiGate looks for a matching policy, beginning at the top. So, you should put more specific policies 
at the top; otherwise, more general policies will match the traffic first, and more granular policies will 
never be applied.
In the example shown on this slide, you’re moving the Block_FTP policy (ID 2) that matches only FTP
traffic, to a position above a more general Full_Access (accept everything from everywhere) policy. 
Otherwise, FortiGate would always apply the first matching policy in the applicable interface pairs—
Full_Access–and never reach the Block_FTP policy.
When moving the policies across the policy list, policy IDs remain unchanged. 
Note that FortiGate assigns the next highest available ID number as policies are created. 
Note that policy IDs are identifiers and are not displayed by default on the policy list GUI. You can add a 
policy ID column using the Configure Table settings icon.
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In order to optimize and consolidate firewall policies, always check all configured settings. In the example 
shown on this slide, the two firewall policies have differences in terms of services, security profiles, and 
logging settings. You can consolidate these two firewall policies by combining services and choosing 
appropriate logging settings.
If you select Security Events (UTM) for the logging settings, traffic logs will not be generated for 
ALL_ICMP traffic.
Note that the ALL_ICMP service is not subject to web filter and antivirus scans, which means that 
applying these security profiles to the ICMP traffic will result in the traffic passing through without being 
inspected. 
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You can find a matching firewall policy based on the policy lookup input criteria. Policy lookup creates a 
packet flow over FortiGate without real traffic. From this, policy lookup can extract a policy ID from the 
flow trace and highlight it on the GUI policy configuration page.
Depending on the protocol you select (for example, TCP, UDP, IP, ICMP, and so on), you need to define 
other input criteria. For example, when you select TCP as the protocol, you need to define the source 
address, source port (optional), destination port, and destination address. When you select ICMP as the 
protocol, you need to define the ICMP type/code, source address, and destination address. 
When FortiGate is performing policy lookup, it performs a seriesof checks on ingress, stateful inspection, 
and egress, for the matching firewall policy, from top to bottom, before providing results for the matching 
policy. 
Note that if the firewall policy status is set to disable, the policy lookup skips the disabled policy and 
checks for the next matching policy in the list. 
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Based on the input criteria, after clicking Search, the trace result is selected and highlighted on the 
Firewall Policy page.
Why didn’t policy ID #1 or ID #2 match the input criteria?
Because policy ID #1 status is set to disable, policy lookup skips the disabled policy. For firewall policy 
ID #2 , it doesn’t match the destination port specified in the policy lookup matching criteria. 
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in the lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to configure, use, and manage 
firewall policies.
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In this lesson, you will learn how to configure network address translation (NAT) and use it to implement 
source NAT and destination NAT for the traffic passing through FortiGate.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in understanding how NAT and PAT work, and the available NAT configuration 
modes, you will have a good start for planning the implementation of NAT in your network.
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NAT is the process that enables a single device, such as a firewall or router, to act as an agent between the 
internet, or public network, and a local, or private, network. 
NAT is usually implemented for one, or a combination, of the following reasons: 
• Improved security: The addresses behind the NAT device are virtually hidden.
• Amplification of addresses: Hundreds of computers can use as few as one public IP address.
• Internal address stability: The addresses can stay the same, even if internet service providers (ISPs) 
change.
NAT and PAT, also known as NAPT, translate internal, typically private, IP addresses to external, typically 
public or internet, IP addresses. In FortiOS, NAT and traffic forwarding apply to the same firewall policy. 
However, diagnostics clearly show NAT and forwarding as separate actions.
• For outgoing connections: you can use the NAT option in a central SNAT, IP pool, and central SNAT table, 
which is known as source NAT.
• For incoming connections: you can use virtual IPs (VIPs) and DNAT, which are known as destination 
NAT.
NAT64 and NAT46 are the terms used to refer to the mechanism that allows IPv6 addressed hosts to 
communicate with IPv4 addressed hosts and the reverse. Without this mechanism, an IPv6 node on a 
network, such as a corporate LAN, would not be able to communicate with a website that was in an IPv4-only 
environment, and IPv4 environments would not be able to connect to IPv6 networks.
NAT66 is NAT between two IPv6 networks.
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When you use firewall policy NAT mode, you must configure SNAT and DNAT for each firewall policy.
Central NAT configurations are done per virtual domain, which means SNAT and DNAT configurations 
automatically apply to multiple firewall policies. This is according to the SNAT and DNAT rules that you 
specify, as opposed to each firewall policy in firewall policy NAT.
As a best practice, when you use central NAT, you should configure specific SNAT and DNAT rules so that 
they match only the desired firewall policies in your configuration.
Both firewall policy NAT and central NAT produce the same results; however, some deployment scenarios are 
best suited to firewall policy NAT and some are best suited to central NAT.
Firewall policy NAT is suggested for deployments that include relatively few NAT IP addresses and where 
each NAT IP address would have separate policies and security profiles. Central NAT is suggested for more 
complex scenarios where multiple NAT IP addresses have identical policies and security profiles, or in next 
generation firewall (NGFW) policy mode, where the appropriate policy may not be determined at the first 
packet. 
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Good job! You now know about NAT.
Now, you’ll learn about firewall policy NAT.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in these areas, you will be able to configure firewall policies and apply 
appropriate SNAT and DNAT, and understand how it is applied to the traffic traversing through FortiGate. 
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There two ways to configure firewall policy SNAT:
• Use the outgoing interface address
• Use the dynamic IP pool
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The source NAT option uses the egress interface address when NAT is enabled on the firewall policy. This is 
many-to-one NAT. In other words, PAT is used, and connections are tracked using the original source 
address and source port combinations, as well as the allocated source port. This is the same behavior as the 
overload IP pool type, which you will also learn about.
Optionally, you may select a fixed port, in which case the source port translation is disabled. With a fixed port, 
if two or more connections require the same source port for a single IP address, only one connection can 
establish.
In the example shown on this slide, a firewall policy from internal to wan1 (IP address 203.0.113.10) is 
created, and the user initiates traffic from source 10.10.10.10:1025 destined for 192.168.10.10:80. 
Because NAT is enabled on the firewall policy, the source IP address is translated to the egress interface IP, 
with port translation. 
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IP pools are a mechanism that allow sessions leaving the FortiGate firewall to use NAT. An IP pool defines a 
single IP address or a range of IP addresses to be used as the source address for the duration of the session. 
These assigned addresses are used instead of the IP address assigned to that FortiGate interface.
IP pools are usually configured in the same range as the interface IP address.
When you configure the IP pools that will be used for NAT, there is a limitation that you must take into 
account. If the IP addresses in the IP pool are different from the IP addresses that are assigned to the 
interface(s), communications based on those IP addresses may fail if the routing is not properly configured. 
For example, if the IP address assigned to an interface is 172.16.100.1/24, you cannot choose 
10.10.10.1to 10.10.10.50 for the IP pool unless appropriate routing is configured.
There are four types of IP pools that you can configure on the FortiGate firewall:
• Overload
• One-to-one 
• Fixed port range 
• Port block allocation
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If you use an IP pool, the source address is translated to an address from that pool, rather than the egress 
interface address. The larger the number of addresses in the pool, the greater the number of connections that 
can be supported. For example, in an enterprise network where you require a greater number of connections,
or in a network where you want one subnet to use one specific public IP over another to restrict access based 
on source IP address.
The default IP pool type is overload. In the overload IP pool type, a many-to-one or many-to-few relationship 
and port translation is used.
In the example shown on this slide, source IP 10.10.10.10 is translated to an IP address from the IP pool 
(203.0.113.2 - 203.0.113.5).
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In the one-to-one pool type, an internal IP address is mapped with an external address on a first-come, first-
served basis. 
There is a single mapping of an internal address to an external address. Mappings are not fixed and, if there 
are no more addresses available, a connection will be refused.
Also, in one-to-one, PAT is not required. In the example on this slide, you can see the same source port is 
shown for both the ingress and egress address.
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For the overload and one-to-one IP pool types, you do not need to define the internal IP range. For the fixed 
port range type of IP pool, you can define both the internal IP range and external IP range. 
Because each external IP address and the number of available port numbers is a specific number, if the 
number of internal IP addresses is also determined, you can calculate the port range for each address 
translation combination. This type of IP pool is called fixed port range and is a type of port address translation 
(PAT).
The fixed port range allows fixed mapping of the internal start IP or internal end IP range to the external start 
IP or external end IP range. 
The example on this slide shows a fixed port range IP pool. The internal address range 10.0.1.10 to 
10.0.1.11 maps to the external address range 10.200.1.7 to 10.200.1.8. 
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IP Pool type port block allocation is also a type of PAT. It gives users a more flexible way to control the way 
external IPs and ports are allocated. 
Users need to define Block Size and Block Per User and the external IP range. Block Size means how 
many ports each block contains. Block per User means how many blocks each host or (internal IP) can use.
The two CLI outputs shown on this slide illustrate the behavior difference between the port block allocation IP 
pool type and the default overload IP pool type.
Using hping, a rogue client generates many SYN packets per second. In the first example, the port block 
allocation type limits the client to 64 connections for that IP pool. Other users will not be impacted by the 
rogue client.
In the second example, the overload type imposes no limits, and the rogue client uses many more 
connections in the session table. Other users will be impacted.
The port block allocation timeout period is configurable on the FortiGate CLI.
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VIPs are DNAT objects. For sessions matching a VIP, the destination address is translated; usually a public 
internet address is translated to the private network address of a server. VIPs are selected in the firewall 
policy’s Destination field.
The default VIP type is static NAT. This is a one-to-one mapping, which applies to incoming and outgoing 
connections; that is, an outgoing policy with NAT enabled would use the VIP address instead of the egress 
interface address. However, this behavior you can override using an IP pool. 
You can restrict the static NAT VIP to forward only specific ports. For example, connections to the external IP 
on port 8080 map to the internal IP on port 80.
On the CLI, you can select the NAT type as load-balance and server-load-balance. Plain load 
balancing distributes connections from an external IP address to multiple internal addresses. Server load 
balancing builds on that mechanism, using a virtual server and real servers, and provides session persistence 
and server availability check mechanisms.
VIPs should be routable to the external facing (ingress) interface. FortiOS responds to ARP requests for VIP 
and IP pool objects. ARP responses are configurable.
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In the example shown on this slide, source IP address 192.168.10.10 is trying to access destination IP 
address 203.0.113.22 over port TCP 80. 
Connections to the VIP 203.0.113.22 are NATed to the internal host 10.10.10.10. 
Because this is a static NAT, all NATed outgoing connections from 10.10.10.10 will use VIP address 
203.0.113.22 in the packet’s IP source field and not the egress interface IP address 203.0.113.10.
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In FortiOS, VIPs and firewall address objects are completely different. They are stored separately with no 
overlap. By default, firewall address objects do not match VIPs. In the example shown on this slide, the all
address object as a destination in the first policy does not include any VIPs, so traffic destined to the 
Webserver VIP skips the first policy and matches the second Allow_access. In order for the first policy to 
match the VIP, you need to either edit the policy on the CLI and set match-vip enable, which allows 
address objects to match the VIP address, or change the destination address of the first policy to be the VIP 
in question. 
Traffic is permitted to fall through to the next policy; however, when you use VIP firewall policies, there can be 
some exceptions.
When VIP(s) are configured, for incoming (WAN to LAN) connections, it will be first matched against the VIP 
table. 
In the example shown on this slide, a firewall policy from WAN to LAN is configured with a specific source 
and the action is Deny. There is a second firewall policy that is allowing access to the VIP (the destination 
address). Even though the deny firewall policy is at the top of the list, the denied source is still allowed by the 
second firewall policy to access the VIP.
In order to block traffic from the denied source, you must enable set match-vip enable in the deny 
firewall policy, which skips the VIP ID checking. Alternatively, you can configure the destination address as 
the virtual IP in the deny policy instead of all.
Note set match-vip enable | disable is only available for firewall policy when the action of the 
policy is set to deny.
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Good job! You now understand firewall policy NAT. 
Now, you’ll learn about central NAT.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objective shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in configuring central NAT to perform SNAT and DNAT, you will be able to use 
NAT on a more granular level to control IP address, protocol,and port translation.
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By default, central NAT is disabled. You can enable it on the CLI or the GUI. After central NAT is enabled, the 
following two options are available to be configured on the GUI:
• Central SNAT
• DNAT & Virtual IPs
What happens if you try to enable central NAT, but there are still IP pools or VIPs configured in firewall 
policies? 
The CLI will not allow this and presents a message referencing the firewall policy ID with the VIP or IP pool. 
You must remove VIP or IP pool references from existing firewall policies in order to enable central NAT.
Central SNAT is mandatory for the new NGFW policy-based mode. This means SNAT behaves only 
according to the NAT settings found by clicking Policy & Objects > Central SNAT. 
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You can have more granular control, based on source and destination interfaces in the central SNAT policy, 
over traffic passing through firewall policies. 
You can now define matching criteria in the central SNAT policy, based on:
• Source interface
• Destination interface
• Source address
• Destination address
• Protocol
• Source port
A matching central SNAT policy is mandatory for all firewall policies. If there is no matching SNAT policy, no 
NAT will be applied and a session is created using the original source IP address. 
If the central SNAT policy criteria matches the traffic based on multiple firewall policies, the central SNAT 
policy is applied to those firewall policies.
Similar to firewall policies, a central SNAT policy is processed from top to bottom and, if a match is found, the 
source address and source port are translated based on that central SNAT policy.
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In the example shown on this slide, the central SNAT policy translates the source IP address to the defined IP 
pool address (203.0.113.5). However, the translation takes place only if the traffic matches all the variables 
defined in the central SNAT policy, that is, traffic from the source IP address through the source interface 
internal to FortiGate must be destined for destination IP address (192.168.10.10) through destination 
interface wan1 and the protocol must be TCP. For illustration purposes, only a single IP address is used for 
the destination, and the IP pool type is set to overload with a single IP address. 
The firewall policy is created from internal to wan1. There is no NAT option available in firewall policy, and 
matching SNAT policy is mandatory to pass the traffic. If there is no matching central SNAT policy, no NAT 
will be applied and the session will be created using the original source IP address.
If the user tries any TCP-based sessions (for example HTTP, HTTPS) to the destination IP address 
192.168.10.10, the source IP address is translated to an IP pool address or addresses defined in the 
central NAT policy.
What if the user tries to send any ICMP or UDP-based traffic to 192.168.10.10? Will the source address be 
translated to the IP pool defined in the central NAT policy?
Because the central SNAT policy does not match, FortiGate applies no NAT. What if the user tries TCP-based 
traffic to another destination IP address, 192.168.10.20? Will the source address be translated to the IP 
pool defined in the central SNAT policy?
Again, the destination IP address of 192.168.10.20 does not match the central NAT policy, so FortiGate 
does not apply NAT and the firewall session is created using the original source IP.
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Traditionally on FortiGate, you select VIPs in the firewall policy as the destination address.
On FortiGate, you can configure DNAT and VIPs for DNAT. As soon as you configure a VIP, FortiGate 
automatically creates a rule in the kernel to allow DNAT to occur. You do not need to do any additional 
configuration.
Do you lose the granularity of being able to define a firewall policy for a specific VIP and services?
No, you don’t. If you have several WAN-to-internal policies and multiple VIPs, and you want to allow specific
services for specific VIPs, you can define each firewall policy with the destination address of the mapped IP of 
the VIP, and select the appropriate services to allow or deny.
VIP takes effect right after it is created when Central NAT is enabled, If you want to exclude a VIP, you can 
change the status of the VIP to disable on the CLI, to easily manage VIP when central NAT is enabled.
Note that if both central SNAT and central DNAT (VIP) are configured, the outgoing (internal-to-WAN) traffic 
will source NAT, based on the matching central SNAT policy configurations, and if there is no matching 
central SNAT policy no NAT is applied to outgoing traffic.
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In the example shown on this slide, a DNAT and VIP rule is created to map external IP address 
203.0.113.22 to internal IP address 10.10.10.10. Remember, as soon as you create a VIP, a rule is 
created in the kernel to allow DNAT to occur.
The firewall policy from wan1 to internal is created with the destination address all or Mapped IP 
Address/Range (10.10.10.10) of the VIP.
The source IP address 192.168.10.10 is trying to access the destination IP address 203.0.113.22 over port 
TCP 80. Connections to the VIP 203.0.113.22 are NATed to the internal host 10.10.10.10, without any 
additional configuration. 
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You can disable central NAT on the CLI by running set central-nat disable under the config 
system setting. What happens to firewall policies that are using central SNAT and DNAT rules, if central 
NAT is disabled?
For new firewall sessions, the incoming to outgoing firewall policies no longer perform SNAT. You must 
manually edit firewall policies to enable NAT and select appropriate IP pool addresses, which were previously 
tied to the central SNAT policy.
Egress-to-ingress firewall policies that use DNAT and VIP will no longer perform DNAT. In central NAT, the 
destination address in the firewall policy is simply an address object, not an actual VIP. Without the central
NAT hook into the DNAT table, the address object causes a forward policy check failure—the traffic is denied 
by policy ID 0. 
You must edit the egress-to-ingress firewall policies and select VIP as the destination address. 
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Good job! You now understand central NAT. 
Now, you’ll learn about session helpers.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in understanding how session helpers work, you will be able to use session 
helpers to analyze data in the packets of some protocols, and allow those protocols to pass traffic through 
FortiGate.
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Some application layer protocols are not fully independent of the lower layers, such as the network or 
transport layers. The addresses may be repeated in the application layer, for example. If the session helper 
detects a pattern like this, it may change the application headers, or create the required secondary 
connections.
A good example of this is an application that has both a control channeland a data or media channel, such as 
FTP. Firewalls will typically allow the control channel and rely on the session helpers to handle the dynamic 
data or media transmission connections.
When more advanced application tracking and control is required, you can use ALG. The VOIP profile is an 
example of an ALG.
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In the examples shown on this slide, the media recipient address in the SIP SDP payload is modified to reflect 
the translated IP address.
Notice how, because firewall policies are stateful, a pinhole is opened to allow reply traffic, even though you 
have not explicitly created a firewall policy to allow incoming traffic. This concept is used with some other 
protocols, such as NAT-T for IPsec.
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Good job! You now understand session helpers. 
Now, you’ll learn about sessions.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in understanding how a session table keeps track of the session information, 
you will be able to use that information effectively to understand the actions applied to traffic, such as SNAT, 
DNAT, and routing.
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You can view the Sessions page on the GUI, but the CLI provides more information regarding sessions in the 
session table.
Firewall performance of connections for each session, and the maximum number of connections, are 
indicated by the session table. However, if your FortiGate device contains security processors designed to 
accelerate processing without loading the CPU, the session table information might not be completely 
accurate, because the session table reflects what is known to, and processed by, the CPU.
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Each session on FortiGate can idle for a finite time, which is defined by TTL. When the FortiGate detects the 
session is idle after some time of inactivity, and TTL is reached, the session is deleted from the session table.
Because the session table has a finite quantity of RAM that it can use on FortiGate, adjusting the session TTL 
can improve performance. There are global default timers, session state timers, and timers configurable in 
firewall objects.
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The diagnose sys session command tree provides options to filter, clear, or show the list of sessions. 
You can also list brief information about sessions by running the get system session list command. 
Before looking at the session table, first build a filter. To look at our test connection, you can filter on dst
10.200.1.254 and dport 80. 
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In the example shown on this slide, you can see the session TTL, which reflects how long FortiGate can go 
without receiving any packets for this session, until it removes the session from its table.
Here you can see the routing and NAT actions that apply to the traffic. The firewall policy ID is also tracked.
The proto_state for TCP is taken from its state machine, which you’ll learn about later in this lesson. 
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Earlier in this lesson, you learned that the session table contains a number that indicates the current TCP 
state of the connection. These are the states of the TCP state machine. They are single-digit values, but 
proto_state is always shown as two digits. This is because FortiGate is a stateful firewall and keeps track 
of the original direction (client-side state) and the reply direction (server-side state). If there are too many 
connections in the SYN state for long periods of time, this indicates a SYN flood, which you can mitigate with 
DoS policies.
This table and flow graph correlates the second digit value with the different TCP session states. For example, 
when FortiGate receives the SYN packet, the second digit is 2. It goes to 3 once the SYN/ACK is received. 
After the three-way handshake, the state value changes to 1.
When a session is closed by both sides, FortiGate keeps it in the session table for a few seconds more, to 
allow any out-of-order packets that could arrive after the FIN/ACK packet. This is the state value 5.
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Although UDP is a message-oriented, stateless protocol, it doesn’t inherently require confirmed bidirectional 
connections like TCP, so there is no connection state. However, the FortiGate session table does use the 
proto_state= field to track the unidirectional UDP as state 0, and the bidirectional UDP as state 1.
When FortiGate receives the first packet, it creates the entry and sets the state to 0. If the destination replies, 
FortiGate updates the state flag to 1 for the remainder of the conversation.
Notably, ICMP, such as ping and traceroute, have no protocol state and it will always show 
proto_state=00.
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Good job! You now understand sessions. 
Now, you’ll learn about best practices and troubleshooting NAT.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in using traffic logs, diagnose commands, VIP filters, and best practices for 
NAT implementation, you should be able to monitor and troubleshoot common NAT issues, and successfully 
implement NAT in your network.
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NAT port exhaustion occurs when FortiGate is unable to allocate ports for performing NAT on new sessions 
because there are no available ports. When NAT port exhaustion occurs, FortiGate informs the administrator 
by displaying the log shown on this slide, with a severity of critical.
To address NAT port exhaustion, you must take one of the following actions:
• Create an IP pool that has more than one external IP tied to it (so it load balances across them)
• Reduce the number of sessions that require NAT
To receive important logs like this one, you must make sure that the necessary logging is enabled. On the 
FortiGate GUI, click Log&Report > Log Settings, to check that the default setting, logging to disk or 
memory, is activated.
NAT port exhaustion is also highlighted by a rise in the clash counter from the diagnose system session 
stat command.
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You can control concurrent TCP and UDP connections through a connection quota in the per-IP shaper. 
Maximum number of concurrent TCP and UDP sessions allowed by a shaper is from zero to 2097000, zero 
meaning no limit. You can select a value of zero only from the CLI configuration of the traffic shaper.
You can also control the port quota in the fixed port range IP pool. The number of ports for each user can be 
allocated from 32 to 60416, where 0 means default.
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You can use the diagnose firewall ippool-all list command, which lists all of the configured
NAT IP pools with their NAT IP range and type.
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The diagnose firewall ippool-all stats shows the stats for all of the IP pools.
The stats command provides the following data and information:
• NAT sessions per IP pool
• Total TCP sessions per IP pool
• Total UDP sessions per IP pool
• Total others (non-TCP and non-UDP) sessions per IP pool
Optionally, you can filter the output for a specific IP pool by using the name of the IP pool.
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The Services option has been added to VIP objects. Virtual IP with services is a more flexible virtual IP mode. 
This mode allows users to define services to a single port number mapping.
This configuration was made possible to allow for complex scenarios where multiple sources of traffic are 
using multiple services to connect to a single computer, while requiring a combination of source and 
destination NAT, and not requiring numerous VIPs to be bundled into VIP groups.
In the example shown on this slide, TCP ports 8090, 8091, and 8092 are mapped to an internal webserver, 
TCP port 80. This allows remote connections to communicate with a server behind the firewall.
Once you apply the virtual IP configuration shown on the slide to the firewall policy, if a user accesses 
203.0.113.10:8090 from external network, FortiGate maps it to 10.0.1.10:80 in the internal network. 
Similarly, if a user accesses 203.0.113.10:8091 or 203.0.113.10:8092 from an external network, 
FortiGate maps it to 10.0.1.10:80 in the internal network.
VIPs with different services are considered non-overlapping. 
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Use the following best practices when implementing NAT:
• Avoid misconfiguring an IP pool range:
• Double-check the start and end IPs of each IP pool. 
• Ensure that the IP pool does not overlap with addresses assigned to FortiGate interfaces or to any 
hosts on directly connected networks. 
• If you have internal and external users accessing the same servers, use split DNS to offer an 
internal IP to internal users so that they don’t have to use the external-facing VIP.
• Don’t configure a NAT rule for inbound traffic unless it is required by an application. For example, if there is 
a matching NAT rule for inbound SMTP traffic, the SMTP server might act as an open relay.
• You must schedule a maintenance window to switch from central NAT mode to firewall policy NAT mode, 
or from firewall policy NAT mode to central NAT mode. Switching between NAT modes can create a 
network outage. 
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to understand and configure NAT so that 
you can use it in your network.
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In this lesson, you will learn about using authentication on the firewall policies of FortiGate. 
Firewall Authentication
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide. 
By demonstrating competence in methods of firewall authentication, you will be able to describe and identify 
the supported methods of firewall authentication available on FortiGate.
Firewall Authentication
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Traditional firewalling grants network access by verifying the source IP address and device. This is 
inadequate and can pose a security risk, because the firewall cannot determine who is using the device to 
which it is granting access.
FortiGate includes authentication of users and user groups. As a result, you can follow individuals across 
multiple devices.
Where access is controlled by a user or user group, users must authenticate by entering valid credentials 
(such as username and password). After FortiGate validates the user, FortiGate applies firewall policies and 
profiles to allow or deny access to specific network resources.
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FortiGate supports multiple methods of firewall authentication:
• Local password authentication
• Server-based password authentication (also called remote password authentication)
• Two-factor authentication
This is a system of authentication that is enabled on top of an existing method—it cannot be enabled 
without first configuring one of the other methods. It requires something you know, such as a password, 
and something you have, such as a token or certificate.
During this lesson, you will learn about each method of firewall authentication in detail.
Firewall Authentication
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The simplest method of authentication is local password authentication. User account information (username 
and password) is stored locally on the FortiGate device. This method works well for a single FortiGate 
installation.
Local accounts are created on the User Definition page where a wizard takes you through the process. For 
local password authentication, select Local User as the user type and create a username and password. If 
desired, you can also add email and SMS information to the account, enable two-factor authentication, and 
add the user to a preconfigured user group.
After you create the user, you can add the user—or any preconfigured user group in which the user is a 
member—to a firewall policy, in order to authenticate. You will learn about user groups and firewall policies in 
this lesson.
Firewall Authentication
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When server-based password authentication is used, a remote authentication server authenticates users. This 
method is desirable when multiple FortiGate devices need to authenticate the same users or user groups, or 
when adding FortiGate to a network that already contains an authentication server.
When you use a remote authentication server to authenticate users, FortiGate sends the user’s entered 
credentials to the remote authentication server. The remote authentication server responds by indicating 
whether the credentials are valid or not. If valid, FortiGate consults its configuration to deal with the traffic. 
Note that it is the remote authentication server—not FortiGate—that evaluates the user credentials. 
When the server-based password authentication method is used, FortiGate does not store all (or, in the case 
of some configurations, any) of the user information locally.
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FortiGate provides support for many remote authentication servers, including POP3, RADIUS, LDAP, and 
TACACS+. 
POP3 is the only server that requires an email address as the login credential. All other remote authentication 
servers use the user name. Some POP3 servers require the full email with domain (user@example.com), 
others requirethe suffix only, while still others accept both formats. This requirement is determined by the 
configuration of the server and is not a setting on FortiGate. You can configure POP3 authentication only 
though the CLI. Note that you can configure LDAP to validate with email, rather than the user name.
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You can configure FortiGate to use external authentication servers in the following two ways:
• Create user accounts on FortiGate. With this method, you must select the remote authentication server 
type (RADIUS, TACACS+, or LDAP), point FortiGate to your preconfigured remote authentication server, 
and add the user to an appropriate group. This is usually done when you want to add two-factor 
authentication to your remote users. Remember, POP3 is only configurable through the CLI.
• Add the remote authentication server to user groups. With this method, you must create a user group and 
add the preconfigured remote server to the group. Accordingly, any user who has an account on the 
remote authentication server can authenticate. If you are using other types of remote server, such as an 
LDAP server, as the remote authentication server, you can control access to specific LDAP groups, as 
defined on the LDAP server.
Similar to local password authentication, you must then add the preconfigured user group (in which the user is 
a member) to a firewall policy in order to authenticate. You will learn about user groups and firewall policies 
later in this lesson.
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Traditional user authentication requires your user name plus something you know, such as a password. The 
weakness with this traditional method of authentication is that if someone obtains your user name, they need 
only your password to compromise your account. Furthermore, since people tend to use the same password 
across multiple accounts (some sites with more security vulnerabilities than others), accounts are vulnerable 
to attack, regardless of password strength. 
Two-factor authentication, on the other hand, requires something you know, such as a password, and 
something you have, such as a token or certificate. Because this method places less importance on, often 
vulnerable passwords, it makes compromising the account more complex for an attacker. You can use two-
factor authentication on FortiGate with both user and administrator accounts. The user (or user group to which 
the user belongs) is added to a firewall policy in order to authenticate. Note that you cannot use two-factor 
authentication with explicit proxies.
You can use one-time passwords (OTPs) as your second factor. OTPs are more secure than static 
passwords because the passcode changes at regular intervals and is valid for only a short amount of time. 
Once you use the OTP, you can’t use it again. So, even if it is intercepted, it is useless. FortiGate can deliver 
OTPs through tokens, such as FortiToken 200 (hardware token) and FortiToken Mobile (software token), as 
well as through email or SMS. To deliver an OTP over email or SMS, the user account must contain user 
contact information. 
FortiTokens and OTPs delivered through email and SMS are time based. FortiTokens, for example, generate 
a new, six-digit password every 60 seconds (by default). An NTP server is highly recommended to ensure the 
OTPs remain in sync. FortiToken Mobile Push allows users to accept the authorization request from their 
FortiToken mobile app, without the need to enter an additional code.
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Tokens use a specific algorithm to generate an OTP. The algorithm consists of:
• A seed: a unique, randomly-generated number that does not change over time
• The time: obtained from an accurate internal clock
Both seed and time go through an algorithm that generates an OTP (or passcode) on the token. The 
passcode has a short life span, usually measured in seconds (60 seconds for FortiToken 200, possibly more 
or less for other RSA key generators). Once the life span ends, a new passcode generates.
When using two-factor authentication using a token, the user must first log in with a static password followed 
by the passcode generated by the token. A validation server (FortiGate) receives the user’s credentials and 
validates the static password first. The validation server then proceeds to validate the passcode. It does so by 
regenerating the same passcode using the seed and system time (which is synchronized with the one on the 
token) and comparing it with the one received from the user. If the static password is valid, and the OTP 
matches, the user is successfully authenticated. Again, both the token and the validation server must use the 
same seed and have synchronized system clocks. As such, it is crucial that you configure the date and time 
correctly on FortiGate, or link it to an NTP server (which is recommended).
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You can add a FortiToken 200 or FortiToken Mobile to FortiGate on the FortiTokens page. 
A hard token has a serial number that provides FortiGate with details on the initial seed value. If you have 
several hard tokens to add, you can import a text file, where one serial number is listed per line.
A soft token requires an activation code. Note that each FortiGate (and FortiGate VM) provides two free 
FortiToken Mobile activations. You must purchase any additional tokens from Fortinet.
You cannot register the same FortiToken on more than one FortiGate. If you want to use the same FortiToken 
for authentication on multiple FortiGate devices, you must use a central validation server, such as 
FortiAuthenticator. In that case, FortiTokens are registered and assigned to users on FortiAuthenticator, and 
FortiGate uses FortiAuthenticator as its validation server.
After you have registered the FortiToken devices with FortiGate, you can assign them to users to use as their 
second-factor authentication method. To assign a token, edit (or create) the user account and select Enable 
Two-factor Authentication. On the Token drop-down list, select the registered token you want to assign.
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All the authentication methods you’ve learned about—local password authentication, server-based 
authentication, and two-factor authentication—use active authentication. Active authentication means that 
users are prompted to manually enter their login credentials before being granted access.
But not all users authenticate the same way. Some users can be granted access transparently, because user 
information is determined without asking the user to enter their login credentials. This is known as passive 
authentication. Passive authentication occurs with the single sign-on method for server-based password 
authentication: FSSO, RSSO, and NTLM. 
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Good job! You now understand the basics of firewall authentication.
Now, you will learn about remote authentication servers.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in remote authentication servers, you will be able to configure firewall 
authentication using remote user accounts defined on a remote authentication server.
Firewall Authentication
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Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an applicationprotocol used for accessing and maintaining 
distributed directory information services.
The LDAP protocol is used to maintain authentication data that may include departments, people, groups of 
people, passwords, email addresses, and printers. LDAP consists of a data-representation scheme, a set of 
defined operations, and a request-and-response network.
The LDAP protocol includes a number of operations that a client can request, such as search, compare, and 
add or delete an entry. Binding is the operation in which the LDAP server authenticates the user. If the user is 
successfully authenticated, binding allows the user access to the LDAP server, based on that user’s 
permissions.
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The root of the LDAP directory tree represents the organization itself, and is defined as a domain component 
(DC). The DC is usually a DNS domain, such as example.com. (Because the name contains a dot, it is written 
as two parts separated by a comma: dc=example,dc=com.) You can add additional entries, known as objects, 
to the hierarchy as needed. Generally, two types of objects make up most entries: containers and leafs.
Containers are objects that can include other objects, similar to a folder in a file system. Example containers 
include:
• Country (represented as c)
• Organizational unit (represented as ou)
• Organization (represented as o)
Leafs are objects at the end of a branch and have no subordinate objects. Example leafs include:
• User ID (represented as uid)
• Common name (represented as cn)
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This slide shows an example of a simple LDAP hierarchy.
You must configured the FortiGate device (acting as an LDAP client) requesting authentication to address its 
request to the part of the hierarchy where user records exist: either the domain component, or a specific 
container where the record exists. Similar to users, containers have DNs, and in this example, the DN is 
ou=people,dc=example,dc=com.
The authentication request must also specify the user account entry. This can be one of many options 
including the common name (cn) or, on a computer network, the user ID (uid), which is the information users 
use to log in. Note that if the object name includes a space, such as John Smith, you must enclose the text 
with double quotes when testing in the CLI. For example: cn=“John Smith”.
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On the LDAP Servers page, you can configure FortiGate to point to an LDAP server for server-based 
password authentication. The configuration depends heavily on the server’s schema and security settings. 
Windows Active Directory (AD) is very common. 
The Common Name Identifier setting is the attribute name you use to find the user name. Some schemas 
allow you to use the attribute uid. AD most commonly uses sAMAccountName or cn, but can use others as 
well.
The Distinguished Name setting identifies the top of the tree where the users are located, which is generally 
the dc value; however, it can be a specific container or ou. You must use the correct X.500 or LDAP format. 
The Bind Type setting depends on the security settings of the LDAP server. You must use the setting 
Regular (to specify a regular bind) if you are searching across multiple domains and require the credentials of 
a user that is authorized to perform LDAP queries (for example, an LDAP administrator).
If you want to have a secure connection between FortiGate and the remote LDAP server, enable Secure 
Connection and include the LDAP server protocol (LDAPS or STARTTLS) as well as the CA certificate that 
verifies the server certificate.
Note that the Test Connectivity button only tests whether the connection to the LDAP server is successful or 
not. To test whether a user’s credentials can successfully authenticate, you can use the Test User 
Credentials button, or you can use the CLI. 
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Use the diagnose test authserver command on the CLI to test whether a user’s credentials can 
successfully authenticate. You want to ensure that authentication is successful, before implementing it on any 
of your firewall policies.
The response from the server reports success, failure, and group membership details.
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RADIUS is much different from LDAP, because there is no directory tree structure to consider. RADIUS is a 
standard protocol that provides authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services.
When a user is authenticating, the client (FortiGate) sends an ACCESS-REQUEST packet to the RADIUS 
server. The reply from the server is one of the following:
• ACCESS-ACCEPT, which means that the user credentials are ok
• ACCESS-REJECT, which means that the credentials are wrong
• ACCESS-CHALLENGE, which means that the server is requesting a secondary password ID, token, or 
certificate. This is typically the reply from the server when using two-factor authentication.
Not all RADIUS clients support the RADIUS challenge method.
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You can configure FortiGate to point to a RADIUS server for server-based password authentication through 
the RADIUS Servers page.
The Primary Server IP/Name setting is the IP address or FQDN of the RADIUS server. 
The Primary Server Secret setting is the secret that was set up on the RADIUS server in order to allow 
remote queries from this client. Backup servers (with separate secrets) can be defined in case the primary 
server fails. Note that FortiGate must be listed on the RADIUS server as a client of that RADIUS server or 
else the server will not reply to queries done by FortiGate.
The Authentication Method setting refers to the authentication protocol that the RADIUS server supports. 
Options include chap, pap, mschap, and mschap2. If you select Default, FortiGate will use pap, mschap2, 
and chap (in that order).
Unlike LDAP configurations, the Test Connectivity button used in the example shown on this slide can test 
actual user credentials, but, like LDAP, you can also test this using the CLI. 
The Include in every User Group option adds the RADIUS server and all users that can authenticate against 
it, to every user group created on FortiGate. So, you should enable this option only in very specific scenarios
(for example, when only administrators can authenticate against the RADIUS server and policies are ordered 
from least restrictive to most restrictive).
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Testing RADIUS is much the same as testing LDAP. Use the diagnose test authserver command on 
the CLI to test whether a user’s credentials can successfully authenticate. Again, you should do this to ensure 
authentication is successful before implementing it on any of your firewall policies.
Like LDAP, it reports success, failure, and group membership details, depending on the server’s response. 
Deeper troubleshooting usually requires RADIUS server access.
Note that Fortinet has a vendor-specific attributes (VSA) dictionary to identify the Fortinet-proprietary RADIUS 
attributes. This capability allows you to extend the basic functionality of RADIUS. You can obtain the Fortinet 
VSA dictionary from the Fortinet Knowledge Base (kb.fortinet.com). 
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Good job! You now understand the basics of remote authentication servers.
Now, you will learn about user groups.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objective shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in user groups, you will be able to configure user groups to efficiently manage 
firewall policies.
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FortiGate allows administrators to assign users to groups. Usually, groups are used to more effectively 
manage individuals that have some kind of shared relationship. You might want to group employees by 
business area, such as finance or HR, or by employee type, such as contractors or guests.
After you create user groups, you can add them to firewall policies. This allows you to control access to 
network resources, because policy decisions are made on the group as a whole. You can define both local 
and remote user groups on a FortiGate device. There are four user group types: 
• Firewall
• Guest
• Fortinet single sign-on (FSSO)
• RADIUS single sign-on (RSSO)
The firewall user groups on FortiGate do not need to match any type of group that may already exist on an 
external server, such as an LDAP server. The firewall user groups exist solely to make configuration of 
firewall policies easier.
Most authentication types have the option to make decisions based on the individual user, rather than just 
user groups.
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Guest user groups are different from firewall user groups because they contain exclusively temporary guest 
user accounts (the whole account, not just the password). Guest user groups are most commonly used in 
wireless networks. Guest accounts expire after a predetermined amount of time.
Administrators can manually create guest accounts or create many guest accounts at once using randomly 
generated user IDs and passwords. This reduces administrator workload for large events. Once created, you 
can add accounts to the guest user group and associate the group with a firewall policy.
You can create guest management administrators that have access only to create and manage guest user 
accounts.
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You can configure user groups on the User Groups page. You must specify the user group type and add 
users to the group. Depending on the group you create, you require different configurations. For the firewall 
user group, for example, members can consist of local users, PKI peer users, and users from one or more 
remote authentication servers. If your remote authentication server is an LDAP server, you can select specific 
LDAP groups to add to your user group, as defined on the LDAP server. Note that you can also select 
RADIUS groups, but this requires additional configuration on your RADIUS server and FortiGate (see the 
Fortinet Knowledge Base at kb.fortinet.com). 
User groups simplify your configuration if you want to treat specific users in the same way, for example, if you 
want to provide the entire training department with access to the same network resources. If you want to treat 
all users differently, you need to add all users to firewall policies separately.
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Good job! You now understand the basics of user groups.
Now, you will learn about using firewall policies for authentication.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objective shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence with firewall policies, you will be able to configure firewall policies to enforce 
authentication on specific users and user groups.
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A firewall policy consists of access and inspection rules (compartmentalized sets of instructions) that tell 
FortiGate how to handle traffic on the interface whose traffic they filter. After the user makes an initial 
connection attempt, FortiGate checks the firewall policies to determine whether to accept or deny the 
communication session. However, a firewall policy also includes a number of other instructions, such as those 
dealing with authentication. You can use the source of a firewall policy for this purpose. The source of a 
firewall policy must include the source address (IP address), but you can also include the user and user 
group. In this way, any user, or user group that is included in the source definition for the firewall policy can 
successfully authenticate.
User and user group objects can consist of local firewall accounts, external server accounts, PKI users, and 
FSSO users.
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A firewall policy also checks the service in order to transport the named protocols or group of protocols. No 
service (with the exception of DNS) is allowed through the firewall policy before successful user 
authentication. DNS is usually used by HTTP so that people can use domain names for websites, instead of 
their IP address. DNS is allowed because it is a base protocol and will most likely be required to initially see 
proper authentication protocol traffic. Hostname resolution is almost always a requirement for any protocol. 
However, the DNS service must still be defined in the policy as allowed, in order for it to pass.
In the example shown on this slide, policy sequence 1 (Full_Access) allows users to use external DNS 
servers in order to resolve host names, before successful authentication. DNS is also allowed if authentication 
is unsuccessful, because users need to be able to try to authenticate again. Any service that includes DNS 
would function the same way, like the default ALL service.
HTTP service is TCP port 80 and does not include DNS (UDP port 53).
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As well as the DNS service, the firewall policy must specify the allowed protocols, such as HTTP, HTTPS, 
FTP, and Telnet. If the firewall policy that has authentication enabled does not allow at least one of the 
supported protocols used for obtaining user credentials, the user will not be able to authenticate.
Protocols are required for all authentication methods that use active authentication (local password 
authentication, server-based password authentication, and two-factor authentication). Active authentication 
prompts the user for user credentials based on the following: 
• The protocol of the traffic
• The firewall policy 
Passive authentication, on the other hand, determines the user identity behind the scenes, and does not 
require any specific services to be allowed within the policy.
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In the example shown on this slide, assuming active authentication is used, any initial traffic from 
LOCAL_SUBNET will not match policy sequence 17 (Guest). Policy sequence 17 looks for both IP and user, 
and user group information (LOCAL_SUBNET and Guest-group respectively), and since the user has not yet 
authenticated, the user group aspect of the traffic does not match. Since the policy match is not complete, 
FortiGate continues its search down the sequence list, to see if there is a complete match.
Next, FortiGate evaluates policy sequence 18 to see if the traffic matches. It will not for the same reason it did 
not match 17.
Finally, FortiGate evaluates policy sequence 19 to see if the traffic matches. It matches all criteria, so traffic is 
allowed with no need to authenticate.
When you use only activeauthentication, if all possible policies that could match the source IP have 
authentication enabled, then the user will receive a login prompt (assuming they use an acceptable login 
protocol). In other words, if policy sequence 19 also had authentication enabled, the users would receive login 
prompts.
If you use passive authentication and it can successfully obtain user details, then traffic from 
LOCAL_SUBNET with users that belong to Guest-group will apply to policy sequence 17, even though policy 
sequence 19 does not have authentication enabled.
If you use both active and passive authentication, and FortiGate can identify a user’s credentials through 
passive authentication, the user never receives a login prompt, regardless of the order of any firewall policies. 
This is because there is no need for FortiGate to prompt the user for login credentials when it can identify who 
the user is passively. When you combine active and passive authentication methods, active authentication is 
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intended to be used as a backup, to be used only when passive authentication fails.
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As mentioned earlier, there are three different ways you can alter active authentication behavior. If you have 
an active authentication firewall policy followed by a fall-through policy that does not have authentication 
enabled on it, then all traffic will use the fall-through policy. This means that users are not asked to 
authenticate. By default, all traffic passes through the catch-all policy without being authenticated. You can 
alter this behavior by enabling authentication on all firewall policies. When you enable authentication, all the 
systems must authenticate before traffic is placed on egress interface. 
Alternatively, only on the CLI, you can change the auth-on-demand option to always. This instructs 
FortiGate to trigger an authentication request, if there is a firewall policy with active authentication enabled. In 
this case, the traffic is allowed until authentication is successful. 
If you want to have all users connect to a specific interface, then it is better to enable captive portal 
authentication at the interface level. This way, all devices must authenticate before they are allowed to access 
any resources. 
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Good job! You now understand how to use firewall policies for authentication.
Now, you will learn about authenticating though captive portal.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objective shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in captive portal, you will be able to configure authentication through a captive 
portal.
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If you want all users connecting to the network to be prompted for their login credentials (active 
authentication), you can enable captive portal. Captive portal is a convenient way to authenticate web users 
on wired or Wi-Fi networks through an HTML form that requests a username and password. 
You can host a captive portal on FortiGate or an external authentication server, such as FortiAuthenticator.
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You enable captive portal, for both wired and Wi-Fi networks, at the interface level—regardless of the firewall 
policy that allows it or the port that it ultimately leaves by (authentication being enabled or disabled on the 
policy is not a factor). This is true for any network interface, including Wi-Fi and VLAN interfaces. On the local 
network, you must enable the captive portal setting on the incoming port. 
You can configure a captive portal on the Interfaces page. Select the required interface. In the Network 
section, enable Security mode, and on the drop-down list, select Captive Portal. Note that if you are 
configuring captive portal for a Wi-Fi network, the Wi-Fi SSID must first exist.
Captive portals are not compatible with interfaces in DHCP mode.
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In the Network section, you also restrict captive portal user access.
Select Restricted to Groups to control the access from the captive portal configuration.
Use the security-mode and security-groups settings in port configurations to make the same 
changes on the CLI.
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You can select Allow all to allow access to members of any groups configured on the firewall policies after 
authentication.
Use the security-mode captive-portal setting in port configurations to enforce captive portal access 
using the CLI. By omitting the security-groups setting the User access configuration is set to Allow all.
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You can configure a firewall policy to suppress captive portal for specific addresses, or services. This is useful 
for devices that are unable to actively authenticate, such as printers and fax machines, but still need to be 
allowed by the firewall policy. When suppressed, traffic that matches the source or destination is not 
presented with the captive portal login page. 
There are two ways you can bypass captive portal:
• Through a security exemption list in the GUI or the CLI under config user security-exempt-list
• Through the firewall policy. In the CLI, edit the policy and enter the command set captive-portal-
exempt enable. All traffic matching this policy is now exempt from having to authenticate through the 
captive portal.
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If you want to enable a terms of service disclaimer to be used in combination with captive portal 
authentication, you can do so by using the config firewall policy and set disclaimer enable 
commands on the CLI. The terms of service disclaimer states the legal responsibilities of the user and the 
host organization. When you enable the disclaimer, the user must agree to the terms outlined in the statement 
in order to proceed to the requested URL. When enabled, the terms of service disclaimer opens immediately 
following a successful authentication.
Neither a security exemption list, nor a captive portal exemption on a firewall, can bypass a disclaimer.
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FortiGate allows you to customize portal messages, which include the login page and disclaimer page. You 
can customize the messages on the Replacement Messages page.
The disclaimer page is in HTML, so you must have knowledge of HTML in order to customize the message. 
The default layout is Simple View, which hides most of the replacement messages. Use Extended View to 
show all editable replacement messages.
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An authentication timeout is useful for security purposes. It minimizes the risk of someone using the IP of the 
legitimate authenticated user. It also ensures users do not authenticate and then stay in memory indefinitely. If 
users stayed in memory forever, it would eventually lead to memory exhaustion.
There are three options for timeout behavior:
• Idle: looks at the packets from the host IP. If there are no packets generated by the host device in the 
configured timeframe, then the user is logged out.
• Hard: time is an absolute value.Regardless of the user’s behavior, the timer starts as soon as the user 
authenticates and expires after the configured value.
• New session: even if traffic is being generated on existing communications channels, the authentication 
expires if no new sessions are created through the firewall from the host device within the configured 
timeout value.
Choose the type of timeout that best suits the authentication needs of your environment.
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Good job! You now understand authenticating though captive portals.
Now, you will learn about monitoring and troubleshooting.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in monitoring and troubleshooting, you will be able to monitor authenticated 
users and troubleshoot any issues that may occur.
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You can monitor users who authenticate through your firewall policies using the Dashboard > User & 
Devices > Firewall Users page. It displays the user, user group, duration, IP address, traffic volume, and 
authentication method.
It does not include administrators, because they are not authenticating through firewall policies that allow 
traffic. They are logging in directly on FortiGate. 
This page also allows you to disconnect a user, or multiple users, at the same time.
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In the web-based manager, a good tool for troubleshooting is the Bytes column on the security policy page, 
which you open by clicking Policy & Objects > Firewall Policy. This column displays the number of bytes 
that have passed through this policy. This is valuable information to have when you are troubleshooting. 
When you are testing your configuration (end-to-end connectivity, user authentication, and policy use) 
watching the byte count for an increase can help with troubleshooting. An increase indicates if the policy in 
question is seeing any traffic, which is useful information if you expect a user to require authentication, but 
they are never prompted.
Use the following CLI commands to gather more information about users and user authentication attempts to 
help troubleshoot failed authentication attempts:
• diagnose firewall auth list: shows authenticated users and their IP address.
• diagnose firewall auth clear: clears all authorized users from the current list. This is useful 
when you need to force users to reauthenticate after system or group changes. However, this command 
can easily result in many users having to reauthenticate, so use it carefully.
• diagnose debug application fnbamd -1: use this command to troubleshoot active authentication, 
(You must use it in conjunction with diagnose debug enable.)
• diagnose test authserver radius-direct <ip> <port> <secret>: tests preshared key 
between FortiGate and the RADIUS server.
• diagnose test authserver ldap <server_name> <username> <password>: tests LDAP 
authentication for the specified user account. 
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Use the best practices listed on this slide to avoid unnecessary issues when configuring firewall 
authentication.
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to use authentication on the firewall 
policies of FortiGate.
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In this lesson, you will learn how to configure local and remote logging on FortiGate; view, search, and 
monitor logs; and protect your log data.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in log basics, you will be able to more effectively analyze log data from your 
database.
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When traffic passes through FortiGate to your network, FortiGate scans the traffic, and then takes action 
based on the firewall policies in place. This activity is recorded, and the information is contained in a log 
message. The log message is stored in a log file. The log file is then stored on a device capable of storing 
logs. FortiGate can store logs locally on its own disk space, or can send logs to an external storage device,
such as FortiAnalyzer.
The purpose of logs is to help you monitor your network traffic, locate problems, establish baselines, and 
more. Logs provide you with a greater perspective of your network, allowing you to make adjustments to your 
network security, if necessary.
Some organizations have legal requirements when it comes to logging, so it is important to be aware of your 
organization’s policies during configuration.
For effective logging, your FortiGate system date and time should be accurate. You can either manually set 
the system date and time, or configure FortiGate to keep its time correct automatically by synchronizing with a 
Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. An NTP server is highly recommended.
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To FortiGate, there are three different types of logs: traffic logs, event logs, and security logs. Each type is 
further divided into subtypes. 
Traffic logs record traffic flow information, such as an HTTP/HTTPS request and its response, if any. It 
contains subtypes named forward, local, and sniffer. 
• Forward traffic logs contain information about traffic that FortiGate either accepted or rejected according to 
a firewall policy.
• Local traffic logs contain information about traffic directly to and from the FortiGate management IP 
addresses. They also include connections to the GUI and FortiGuard queries.
• Sniffer logs contain information related to traffic seen by the one-arm sniffer.
Event logs record system and administrative events, such as adding or modifying a setting, or daemon 
activities. It contains subtypes named endpoint control, high availability, system, user, router, VPN, WAD, and 
wireless.
• System event logs contain information related to operations, such as automatic FortiGuard updates and 
GUI logins. 
• User logs contain logon and logoff events for firewall policies with user authentication. 
• Router, VPN, WAD, and wireless subtypes include logs for those features. For example, VPN contains 
IPsec and SSL VPN log entries.
Finally, security logs record security events, such as virus attacks and intrusion attempts. They contain log 
entries based on the security profile type (log type = utm), including application control, antivirus, DLP, anti-
spam (email filter), web filter, intrusion protection, anomaly (DoS-policy), and WAF. Security logs and 
subtypes are only visible in the GUI if logs are created within it—if no security logs exists, the menu item does 
not appear.
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Each log entry includes a log level (or priority level) that ranges in order of importance from emergency to 
information. 
There is also a debug level. It puts diagnostic information into the event log. The debug level is rarely used, 
unless you are actively investigating an issue with Fortinet Support. Generally, the lowest level you want to 
use is information, but even this level generates many logs and can cause premature hard disk failure. 
Depending on the type of log and the needs of your organization, you may want to log only notification levels 
or higher.
You and your organization’s policies dictate what must be logged.
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Every log message has a standard layout comprising two sections: a header and a body.
The header contains fields that are common to all log types, such as originating date and time, log identifier, 
log category, severity level, and virtual domain (VDOM). The value of each field, however, is specific to the 
log message. In the raw log entry example shown on this slide, the log type is UTM, the subtype is 
webfilter, and the level is warning. The type and subtype of logs determine what fields appear in the log 
body.
The body, therefore, describes the reason why the log was created and actions taken by FortiGate. These 
fields vary by log type. In the example shown on this slide, the fields are as follows: 
• The policyid field indicates which firewall rule matched the traffic
• The srcip field indicates the source IP address
• The dstip field indicates the destination IP address
• The hostname field indicates the URL or IP of the host
• The action field indicates what FortiGate did when it found a policy that matched the traffic
• The msg field indicates the reason for the action taken. In this example, the action is blocked, which 
means that FortiGate prevented this IP packet from passing, and the reason is because it belonged to a 
denied category in the firewall policy.
If you log to a third-party device, such as a syslog server, knowing the log structure is crucial to integration. 
For information on log structures and associated meanings, visit http://docs.fortinet.com.
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Collecting logs from the devices in your Security Fabric is important. This is why two or more FortiGate 
devices and a FortiAnalyzer—a remote logging device—are requisite products at the core of the Security 
Fabric solution. With FortiGate, you can enable different security features, like antivirus, web filtering, intrusion 
prevention (IPS), and application control, in different firewalls in the fabric. For example, in the Internal 
Segmentation firewall (ISFW), you can enable only antivirus, while in the Next Generation firewall (NGFW) 
facing the internet, you can enable web filtering, IPS, and application control. This means you do not have to 
duplicate scans and logs of the same traffic flow when it passes through multiple firewalls. 
The Security Fabric can provide a network topology view (physical and logical), and FortiGate devices can 
share network-related information. For example, devices connected to downstream FortiGate devices will be
visible on the upstream device as well (you must enable device detection on the Interfaces page of the 
FortiGate GUI). In short, administrators can view logs and devices connected to the network by logging on to 
the root FortiGate in the Security Fabric. This information is securely shared using the FortiTelemetry
protocol. 
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It is important to remember that the more logs that get generated, the heavier the toll on your CPU, memory, 
and disk resources. Storing logs for a period of time also requires disk space, as does accessing them. So, 
before configuring logging, make sure it is worth the extra resources and that your system can handle the 
influx. 
Also important to note is logging behavior with security profiles. Security profiles can, depending on the 
logging settings, create log events when a traffic matching the profile is detected. Depending on the amount of 
traffic you have, and logging settings that are enabled, your traffic logs can swell and, ultimately, impact the 
performance of your firewall.
From the FortiGate CLI, you can enable performance statistic logging for remote logging devices, such as 
FortiAnalyzer and syslog, to occur every 1-15 minutes (0 to disable). This is not available for local disk logging 
or FortiCloud.
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Good job! You now understand log basics.
Now, you will learn about local logging.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in local logging, you will be able to successfully store logs to local disk and 
retain those logs, based on your requirements.
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Storing logs on FortiGate is known as local logging. You can store logs to the device’s hard drive. 
Typically, mid to high-end FortiGates have a hard drive. Logging to a hard drive is known as disk logging. 
Depending on the model series, disk logging may be enabled by default. 
FortiGate can store all log types, including log archives and traffic logs, locally. Traffic logs and log archives 
are larger files, and need a lot of room when being logged by FortiGate. 
Under heavy log usage, any logging to FortiGate—disk—will result in a performance impact.
If you are using the local hard disk on a device for WAN optimization, you cannot also log to disk (unless your 
device has two separate disks: you can use one with WAN optimization and the other for logging). If you are 
using the local hard disk for WAN optimization, you can log to remote FortiAnalyzer devices or syslog servers. 
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If you want to store logs locally on FortiGate, you must enable disk logging from the Log Settings page. Only 
certain FortiGate models support disk logging. If your FortiGate does not support disk logging, you can log to 
an external device instead. You will learn about remote logging later in this lesson.
Disk logging must be enabled in order for information to appear on the FortiView dashboards. If disabled, logs 
display in real time only. You can also enable this setting using the CLI config log disk setting 
command. 
By default, logs older than seven (7) days are deleted from the disk (log age is configurable).
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If you decide to log locally on FortiGate, be aware that the entire disk space is not available to store logs. The 
FortiGate system reserves approximately 25% of its disk space for system usage and unexpected quota 
overflow.
To determine the amount of reserved space on your FortiGate, use the CLI command diagnose sys 
logdisk usage. Subtract the total logging space from the total disk space to calculate the reserved space. 
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If storing logs locally does not fit your requirements, you can store logs externally. You can configure 
FortiGate to store logs on syslog servers, FortiCloud, FortiSIEM, FortiAnalyzer, or FortiManager. These 
logging devices can also be used as a backup solution.
Syslog is a logging serverthat is used as a central repository for networked devices. 
FortiCloud is a Fortinet subscription-based, hosted security management and log retention service that offers 
long-term storage of logs with reporting. If you have a smaller network, FortiCloud is usually more feasible 
than buying a dedicated logging device. Note that every FortiGate offers a free tier and will keep logs for 
seven days. You must upgrade to the paid service to retain logs for one year.
FortiSIEM provides unified event correlation and risk management that can collect, parse, normalize, index, 
and store security logs.
FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager are external logging devices with which FortiGate can communicate. You can 
place FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager in the same network as FortiGate, or outside of it. While FortiAnalyzer 
and FortiManager share a common hardware and software platform and can both take log entries, 
FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager actually have different capabilities that are worth noting. The primary purpose 
of FortiManager is to centrally manage multiple FortiGate devices. As such, log volumes are limited to a fixed 
amount per day, which are less than the equivalent size FortiAnalyzer. On the other hand, the primary 
purpose of FortiAnalyzer is to store and analyze logs, so the log limit is much higher (though the limit is model
dependent). Note that local disk or logging is not required for you to configure logging to FortiAnalyzer or 
FortiManager.
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The process to configure FortiGate to send logs to FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager is identical. In order for 
FortiGate to send logs to either device, you must register FortiGate with FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager. After it 
is registered, FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager can begin to accept incoming logs from FortiGate. 
You can configure remote logging to FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager using both the GUI and CLI.
• GUI: On the Log Settings page, enable logging to FortiAnalyzer/FortiManager, and type the IP address of 
the remote logging device.
• CLI: For both FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager, use the config log fortianalyzer setting 
command. Even though FortiManager isn’t explicitly mentioned in the command, it is used for 
FortiManager as well. Using the CLI, up to three separate devices or one cloud FortiAnalyzer instance can 
be added to increase redundancy for the protection of log data. The commands for the three devices are 
not cumulative. Generating logs uses system resources, so if FortiGate frequently creates and sends logs 
to multiple places, CPU and RAM usage increase.
Note that the Test Connectivity function on the GUI will report as failing until FortiGate is registered on 
FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager, because it is not yet authorized to send logs.
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FortiGate allows near real-time uploading and consistent high-speed compression and analysis to 
FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager.
On the GUI, upload options include Real Time, Every Minute, and Every 5 Minutes (default).
If your FortiGate model includes an internal hard drive, you also have the store-and-upload option. This 
allows you to store logs to disk and then upload to FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager at a scheduled time (usually 
a low bandwidth time). You can configure the store-and-upload option, as well as a schedule, on the CLI 
only.
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If FortiAnalyzer becomes unavailable to FortiGate for any reason, FortiGate uses its miglogd process to cache 
the logs. There is a maximum value to the cache size, and the miglogd process will begin dropping cached 
logs (oldest first) once this value is reached. When the connection between the two devices is restored, the 
miglogd process begins to send the cached logs to FortiAnalyzer. Therefore, the FortiGate buffer keeps logs 
long enough to sustain a reboot of your FortiAnalyzer (if you are upgrading the firmware, for example), but it is 
not intended for a lengthy FortiAnalyzer outage.
On FortiGate, the CLI command diagnose test application miglogd 6 displays statistics for the 
miglogd process, including the total cache size and current cache size.
The CLI command diagnose log kernel-stats will show an increase in failed-log if the cache is 
full and needs to drop logs. 
FortiGate devices with an SSD disk have a configurable log buffer. When the connection to FortiAnalyzer is 
unreachable, FortiGate is able to buffer logs on disk if the memory log buffer is full. The logs queued on the 
disk buffer can be sent successfully after the connection to FortiAnalyzer is restored.
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Similar to FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager, you can configure remote logging to FortiCloud on the Log 
Settings page or the CLI. However, you must first activate your FortiCloud account, so FortiGate can 
communicate with your FortiCloud account. Once complete, you can enable FortiCloud logging and set the 
upload option. If you want to store your logs to disk first and then upload to FortiCloud, you must specify a 
schedule. When disk usage is set to WAN optimization (wanopt), the store and upload option for logging to 
FortiCloud is removed. 
You can also configure remote logging to syslog and FortiSIEM on the Log Settings page or the CLI. You 
can configure FortiGate to send logs to up to four syslog servers or FortiSIEM devices using the config log 
syslogd CLI command.
FortiGate supports sending logs to syslog in CSV and CEF format, an open log management standard that 
provides interoperability of security-related information between different network devices and applications. 
CEF data can be collected and aggregated for analysis by enterprise management or Security Information 
and Event Management (SIEM) systems, such as FortiSIEM. You can configure each syslog server 
separately to send log messages in CEF or CSV format. 
You can configure an individual syslog to use CSV and CEF format using the CLI. The example shown on this 
slide is for syslogd3. All other syslog settings can be configured as required independently of the log message 
format, including the server address and transport (UDP or TCP) protocol.
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If you have a FortiGate with virtual domains (VDOMs) configured, you can globally add multiple 
FortiAnalyzers and syslog servers. You can configure up to three FortiAnalyzer devices and up to four syslog 
servers under global settings.
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FortiGate uses UDP port 514 (or TCP port 514, if reliable logging is enabled) for log transmission. 
Log messages are stored on disk and transmitted to FortiAnalyzer as plain text in LZ4 compressed format. 
This reduces disk log size and reduces log transmission time and bandwidth usage.
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When you enable reliable logging on FortiGate, the log transport delivery method changes from UDP (User 
Datagram Protocol) to TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). TCP provides reliable data transfer, 
guaranteeing that the data transferred remains intact and arrives in the same order in which it was sent.
If you enable logging to FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager using the GUI, reliable logging is automatically 
enabled. If you enable logging using the CLI, you must enable reliable logging using the CLI command shown 
on this slide.
Logging to FortiCloud uses TCP, and you can set the encryption algorithm using the CLI (the default setting is 
high).
Optionally, if using reliable logging, you can encrypt communications using SSL-encryptedOFTP traffic, so 
when a log message is generated, it is safely transmitted across an unsecure network. You can encrypt 
communications using SSL-secured OFTP by configuring the enc-algorithm setting on the CLI.
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Good job! You now understand remote logging.
Now, you will learn about log settings.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in log settings, you will be able to successfully enable logging on your 
FortiGate, and ensure logs are generated on traffic caused by traffic passing through your firewall policies.
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The Log Settings page allows you to decide if, where, and how a log is stored.
As previously discussed, you must configure whether to store logs locally on your FortiGate disk, or remotely 
to an external device, such as FortiAnalyzer.
You must also configure what event logs and local traffic logs to capture. Local traffic logs provide information 
about traffic directly to and from FortiGate. By default, this option is disabled because of the large number of 
logs they can generate. Event logs provide all of the system information generated by FortiGate, such as 
administrator logins, configuration changes made by administrators, user activity, and daily operations of the 
device—they are not directly caused by traffic passing through firewall policies. For example, IPsec VPNs 
closing, or routing protocol activity, are not caused by traffic passing through a firewall policy. One exception 
might be the user log, because it does record user login and logout events on traffic that passes through 
policies. The event logs you choose to enable depend on what features you are implementing and what 
information you need to get from the logs. 
The Resolve Hostnames feature resolves IP addresses to host names. This requires FortiGate to perform 
reverse DNS lookups for all IP addresses. If your DNS server is not available or is slow to reply, it can impact 
your ability to look through the logs, because the requests will time out.
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While the log settings on the GUI allow you to configure what event logs and local traffic logs to capture, you 
can also set more robust and granular options using the CLI. 
Previously, we mentioned that you can configure up to four logging services for syslog and FortiSIEM using 
the command config log syslogd setting, and up to four FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager devices using 
the config log fortianalyzer setting. You can control what logs are sent to each of these devices 
separately, using the command config log syslogd filter for remote syslog or FortiSIEM, and the 
command config log fortianalyzer filter for FortiAnalyzer or FortiManager devices.
In this way, you can set devices to different logging levels and/or send only certain types of logs to one device 
and other types (or all logs) to others. For example, you can send all logs at information level and above to 
fortianalyzer, alert level and above to fortianalyzer2, and only traffic logs to fortianalyzer3.
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After you configure all logging settings, you can enable logging on your firewall policies. Only when enabled 
on a firewall policy can a log message—caused by traffic passing through that firewall policy—generate.
Generally, if you configure FortiGate to inspect traffic, you should also enable logging for that security feature 
to help you track and debug your traffic flow. Except for violations that you consider to be low in severity, you’ll 
want to know if FortiGate is blocking attacks. Most attacks don’t result in a security breach on the first try. A 
proactive approach, when you notice a persistent attacker whose methods seem to be evolving, can avoid a 
security breach. To get early warnings like this, enable logging for your security profiles.
To enable logging on traffic passing through a firewall policy, you must do the following:
1. Enable the desired security profile(s) on your firewall policy.
2. Enable Log Allowed Traffic on that firewall policy. This setting is vital. If disabled, you will not receive 
logs of any kind—even if you have enabled a security profile on your firewall policy. You can choose to log 
only security events, or log all sessions:
• Security Events: If enabled (along with one or more security profiles), security log events appear 
in the forward traffic log and security log. A forward traffic log generates for packets causing a 
security event.
• All Sessions: If enabled, a forward traffic log generates for every single session. If one or more 
security profiles is also enabled, security log events appear in the forward traffic log and security 
log.
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On FortiGate, you can hide usernames in traffic logs and UTM logs, so that the username appears as 
anonymous. This is useful, because some countries do not permit non-anonymized logging.
To anonymize usernames, use the set user-anonymize enable CLI command.
It is assumed that logging is enabled in firewall policies and security profiles, and that identity-based policies 
are configured on FortiGate.
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You can access your logs on the GUI in the Log & Report menu. The options that appear in this menu 
depend on your configuration. Security logs appear only if security events exist. 
Select the type of log you want to view, such as Forward Traffic. Logs on the GUI appear in a formatted table 
view. The formatted view is easier to read than the raw view, and enables you to filter information when 
viewing log messages. To view the log details, select the log in the table. The log details then appear in the 
Log Details pane on the right side of the window. 
If archiving is enabled on security profiles that support it (such as DLP), archived information appears within 
the Log Details pane in the Archived Data section. Archived logs are also recorded when using 
FortiAnalyzer or FortiCloud.
If you configure FortiGate to log to multiple locations, you can change the log display location in this section. 
In the example shown on this slide, the log location is set to Disk. If logging to a syslog, you must view logs 
on the syslog instead.
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Depending on your configuration, your FortiGate might record a high volume of logs. This can make it more 
difficult to locate a specific log, especially during an investigation. 
To navigate the logs more efficiently, you can set up log filters. The more information you specify in the filter, 
the easier it is to find the precise log entry. Filters are configurable for each column of log data on the display. 
Click Add Filter to select the filter from the drop-down list that appears. If you see data that you want to filter 
on in a log in the table already, you can right-click that data to select the quick filter option. For example, if you 
see an antivirus log in the table with a specific botnet name, right-click the botnet name in the table and a 
quick filter option appears that lets you filter on all logs with that botnet name.
By default, the most common columns are shown and less common columns are hidden. Accordingly, if 
filtering data based on a column that is hidden, be sure to add the column as a selectedcolumn. To add 
columns, right-click any column field, and, in the pop-up menu that appears, select the column in the 
Available Columns section.
If your search filters don’t return any results when the log data does exist, the filter may be poorly formed. 
FortiGate looks for an exact match in the log, so you must form the search string correctly.
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You can also access log messages generated by individual policies. Right-click the policy for which you want 
to view all associated logs and, in the pop-up menu, select Show Matching Logs. FortiGate takes you to the 
Forward Traffic page where a filter is automatically set based on the policy UUID.
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You are not restricted from viewing log messages on the GUI. You can also view log messages on the CLI, 
using the execute log display command. This command allows you to see specific log messages that 
you already configured within the execute log filter command. The execute log filter
command configures what log messages you will see, how many log messages you can view at one time (a 
maximum of 1000 lines of log messages), and the type of log messages you can view.
Logs appear in the raw format view. The raw format displays logs as they appear within the log file.
Similar to the GUI, if you have configured either a syslog or SIEM server, you will not be able to view log 
messages on the CLI.
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Because you can’t always be physically watching the logs on the device, you can monitor events by setting up 
alert email. Alert emails provide an efficient and direct method of notifying an administrator of events.
Before you configure alert email, you should configure your own SMTP server on your FortiGate first. The 
FortiGate has an SMTP server preconfigured, but it is recommended that you use your internal email server if 
you have one.
You can configure alert emails using the CLI. You can trigger alert emails based on event (such as any time 
an intrusion is detected or the web filter blocked traffic), or on minimum log severity level (such as all logs at 
the Alert level or above). You can configure up to three recipients. 
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In order to prioritize solving the most relevant issues easily, you can configure severity levels for IPS 
signatures, web categories, and applications that are associated with a threat weight (or score). 
On the Threat Weight page, you can apply a risk value of either low, medium, high, or critical to each 
category-based item. Each of these levels includes a threat weight. By default, low = 5, medium = 10, high = 
30, and critical = 50. You can adjust these threat weights based on your organizational requirements.
After threat weight is configured, you can view all detected threats on the Security page. You can also search
for logs by filtering on threat score.
Note that threat weight is for informational purposes only. FortiGate will not take any action based on threat 
weight.
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Good job! You now understand how to troubleshoot communication issues.
Now, you will learn how you can protect your log data.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in using various methods to protect your logs, you will be able to meet 
organizational or legal requirements for logs.
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You can also protect your log data by performing log backups, which is to say copying log files from the 
database to a specified location. 
The execute backup disk alllogs command backs up all logs to FTP, TFTP, or USB, while execute 
backup disk log <log type> backs up specific log types (such as web filter or IPS) to FTP, TFTP, or 
USB. These logs are stored in LZ4 format. You can restore FortiGate backup logs to a FortiAnalyzer device 
and then view on both FortiGate and FortiAnalyzer devices. 
You can also back up logs to USB using the GUI. The GUI menu item appears when you insert a USB drive 
into a FortiGate USB port.
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Using the config log disk setting command, you can configure logs to roll (which is similar to zipping 
a file) to lower the space requirements needed to contain them so they don’t get overwritten. By default, logs 
roll when they reach 20 MB in size. You can also configure a roll schedule and time.
Using the same CLI command, you can also configure rolled logs to upload to an FTP server to save disk 
space. You can configure which types of log files to upload, when, and whether to delete files after uploading. 
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You can also download a copy of the logs from FortiGate and save them on a server or on a computer to view 
and access later. This ensures that you still have a copy when the originals are eventually overwritten on 
FortiGate.
You can download logs by clicking the download icon on the associated log type page (for example, Forward 
Traffic or Web Filter). This downloads only the logs in the results table—not all logs on disk. As such, you 
can add log filters if you want to download only a subset of logs. When you download the log messages on the 
GUI, you are downloading log messages in the raw format. 
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson. Now, you will review the topics that you covered in this 
lesson.
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This slide shows the topics that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the topics covered in this lesson, you learned to configure local and remote logging, view logs, 
search logs, and protect your log data.
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In this lesson, you will learn why FortiGate uses digital certificates, how to configure FortiGate to use 
certificates (including using certificates to inspect the contents of encrypted traffic), and how FortiGate 
manages certificates.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating an understanding of how FortiGate uses certificates, you will be better able to judge how 
and when certificates could be used in your own networks.
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FortiGate uses digital certificates to enhance security. 
FortiGate uses digital certificates for inspection. The device can generate certificates on demand for the 
purpose of inspecting encrypted data that is transferred between two devices; essentially, a man-in-the-middle 
(MITM) attack. FortiGate can also inspect certificates to identify people and devices (in the network and on the 
internet), before it permits a person or device to make a full connection to theentity that it is protecting. If 
FortiGate trusts the certificate, it permits the connection. But if FortiGate does not trust the certificate, it can 
prevent the connection. How you configure FortiGate determines the behavior; however, other policies that 
are being used may also affect whether connection attempts are accepted or rejected.
FortiGate uses digital certificates to enforce privacy. Certificates, and their associated private keys, ensure 
that FortiGate can establish a private SSL connection to another device, such as FortiGuard, a web browser, 
or a web server.
FortiGate also uses certificates for authentication. Users who have certificates issued by a known and trusted
CA can authenticate on FortiGate to access the network or to establish a VPN connection. Administrator 
users can use certificates as a second-factor authentication to log in to FortiGate.
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What is a digital certificate? 
A digital certificate is a digital document produced and signed by a CA. It identifies an end entity, such as a 
person (example, Joe Bloggins), a device (example, webserver.acme.com), or thing (example, a certificate 
revocation list). FortiGate identifies the device or person by reading the value in the Subject field, which is 
expressed as a distinguished name (DN). FortiGate could also use alternate identifiers, shown in the Subject 
Alternative Name field, whose values could be a network ID or an email address, for example. FortiGate can 
use the Subject Key Identifier and Authority Key Identifier values to determine the relationship between 
the issuer of the certificate (identified in the Issuer field) and the certificate. FortiGate supports the X.509v3 
certificate standard, which is the most common standard for certificates. 
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FortiGate runs the following checks before it trusts the certificate:
• Checks the CRLs locally (on FortiGate) to verify if the certificate has been revoked by the CA. If the serial 
number of the certificate is listed on the CRL, then the certificate has been revoked and it is no longer 
trusted. FortiGate also supports Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP), where FortiAuthenticator acts 
as the OCSP responder. 
• Reads the value in the Issuer field to determine if it has the corresponding CA certificate. Without the CA 
certificate, FortiGate does not trust the certificate. FortiOS uses the Mozilla CA certificate store. You can 
view the list by clicking Security Profiles > SSL Inspection > View Trusted CA List > Factory Bundles. 
• Verifies that the current date is between the Valid From and Valid To values. If it is not, the certificate is 
rendered invalid. 
• Validates the signature on the certificate. The signature must be successfully validated. Because a valid 
signature is a critical requirement for trusting a certificate, it may be useful to review how FortiGate verifies 
digital signatures.
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Before it generates a digital signature, the CA runs the content of the certificate through a hash function, 
which produces a hash result. The hash result, which is a mathematical representation of the data, is referred 
to as the original hash result. The CA encrypts the original hash result using its private key. The encrypted 
hash result is the digital signature.
When FortiGate verifies the digital signature, it runs the certificate through a hash function, producing a fresh 
hash result. FortiGate must use the same hash function, or hashing algorithm, that the CA used to create the 
digital signature. The hashing algorithm is identified in the certificate. 
In the second part of the verification process, FortiGate decrypts the encrypted hash result (or digital 
signature) using the CA public key, and applying the same algorithm that the CA used to encrypt the hash 
result. This process verifies the signature. If the key cannot restore the encrypted hash result to its original 
value, then the signature verification fails.
In the third, and final, part of the verification process, FortiGate compares the fresh hash result to the original 
hash result. If the two values are identical, then the integrity of the certificate is confirmed. If the two hash 
results are different, then the version of the certificate that FortiGate has is not the same as the one that the 
CA signed, and data integrity fails.
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Certificate-based user authentication uses an end-entity certificate to identify the user. This certificate 
contains the user public key and the signature of the CA that issued the certificate. The authentication server 
(for example, FortiGate) must have the CA certificate whose private key signed the user certificate. FortiGate 
verifies that the certificate signature is valid, that the certificate has not expired, and that the certificate hasn’t 
been revoked. If any of these verifications fail, the certificate-based user authentication fails.
You can configure FortiGate to require that administrators use certificates for second-factor authentication. 
The process for verifying administrator certificates is the same.
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As you can see in the example shown on this slide, trust in the web model is determined by whether or not 
your certificate store possesses the CA certificate that is required to verify the signature on the SSL certificate.
Certificate stores come prepopulated with root and subordinate CA certificates. You can choose to add or 
remove the certificates, which will affect which websites you trust.
By default, FortiGate uses a self-signed certificate to authenticate itself to HTTPS clients. 
You can configure self-signed certificates to establish SSL sessions, just like those certificates issued by 
Verisign, Entrust Datacard, and other certificate vendors. But, because self-signed certificates do not come 
prepopulated in client certificate stores, your end users get a security warning. You can choose to add the 
self-signed certificate to clients, or to purchase an SSL certificate from an approved CA vendor for your 
FortiGate device.
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FortiGate uses SSL to ensure that data remains private when connecting with servers, such as FortiGuard, 
and with clients, such as a web browser. Another feature of SSL is that FortiGate can use it to identify one or 
both parties using certificates. SSL uses symmetric and asymmetric cryptography to establish a secure 
session between two points. 
It is beneficial to understand the high-level process of an SSL handshake, in order to understand how 
FortiGate secures private sessions. 
An important attribute of symmetric cryptography is that the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt data. 
When FortiGate establishes an SSL session between itself and another device it must share, the symmetric 
key (or rather the value required to produce it), so that data can be encrypted by one side, sent, and 
decrypted by the other side. 
Asymmetric cryptography uses a pair of keys: one key performs one function and the other key performs the 
opposite function. When FortiGate connects to a web server, for example, it uses the web server public key to 
encrypt a string known as the premaster secret. The web server private key decrypts the premaster secret.
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Now, you will learn more about the process of establishing an SSL session. 
In the first step of the example shown on this slide, FortiGate connects to a web serverthat is configured for 
SSL. In the initial hello message, the browser provides critical information that is needed to communicate with 
the web server. This information includes the SSL version number and the names of the cryptographic 
algorithms that it supports.
In the second step, the web server receives the message from FortiGate and chooses the first suite of 
cryptographic algorithms included in the message, and verifies that it is also supported by the web server. The 
web server replies with the chosen SSL version and cipher suite, and then sends its certificate to FortiGate. 
Note that the certificate information is passed as cleartext over the public network. The information contained 
in a certificate is typically public, so this is not a security concern.
In the third step, FortiGate validates the web server certificate. The checklist shown on this slide represents 
the checks that FortiGate performs on the certificate to ensure that it can be trusted. If FortiGate determines 
that the certificate can be trusted, then the SSL handshake continues.
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In the fourth step, FortiGate generates a value known as the premaster secret. FortiGate uses the server 
public key, which is in the certificate, to encrypt the premaster secret. FortiGate then sends the encrypted 
premaster secret to the web server. If a third-party intercepted the premaster secret, they would be unable to 
read it, because they do not have the private key. 
In the fifth step, the web server uses its private key to decrypt the premaster secret. Now, both FortiGate and 
the web server share a secret value that is known by only these two devices.
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In the sixth step, both FortiGate and the web server derive the master secret based on the premaster secret.
In the seventh step, based on the master secret value, FortiGate and the web server generate the session 
key. The session key is a symmetric key. It is required to encrypt and decrypt the data. Because both sides 
have the session key, both sides can encrypt and decrypt data for each other.
In the eighth and final step before these two entities establish the secure connection, both FortiGate and the 
web server send each other a summary (or digest) of the messages sent so far. The digests are encrypted 
with the session key. The digests ensure that none of the messages exchanged during the creation of the 
session have been intercepted or replaced. If the digests match, the secure communication channel is 
established.
The SSL handshake is now complete. Both FortiGate and the web server are ready to communicate securely, 
using the session keys to encrypt and decrypt the data they send over the network or internet.
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Good job! You now understand why and how FortiGate uses certificates to authenticate devices and people. 
You also understand how FortiGate uses certificates to ensure the privacy of data as it flows from FortiGate to 
another device, or from another device to FortiGate. 
Now, you will learn about how to inspect encrypted data.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in understanding and configuring full SSL inspection and certificate inspection, 
you will be able to implement one of these SSL inspection solutions in your network.
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(slide contains animation)
While there are benefits to using HTTPS, there are risks associated with its use as well, because encrypted 
traffic can be used to get around normal defenses. For example, if a session is encrypted when you download 
a file containing a virus, the virus might get past your network security measures.
In the example shown on this slide, Bob connects to a site with a certificate issued by a legitimate CA. 
Because the CA is an approved CA, the CA verification certificate is in Bob’s certificate store, and Bob’s 
browser is able to establish an SSL session with the example.com site. However, unknown to Bob, the 
example.com site has been infected with a virus. The virus, cloaked by encryption, passes through FortiGate 
undetected and enters Bob’s computer. The virus is able to breach security because full SSL inspection is not 
enabled.
You can use full SSL inspection, also known as deep inspection, to inspect encrypted sessions.
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During the exchange of hello messages at the beginning of an SSL handshake, FortiGate parses server name 
indication (SNI) from client Hello, which is an extension of the TLS protocol. The SNI tells FortiGate the 
hostname of the SSL server, which is validated against the DNS name before receipt of the server certificate. 
If there is no SNI exchanged, then FortiGate identifies the server by the value in the Subject field or SAN
(subject alternative name) field in the server certificate. 
When you use certificate inspection, FortiGate inspects only the header information of the packets. You use 
certificate inspection to verify the identity of web servers. You can also use it to make sure that the HTTPS 
protocol isn't used as a workaround to access sites you have blocked using web filtering.
The only security feature that you can apply using SSL certificate inspection mode is web filtering. However, 
since only the packet is inspected, this method does not introduce certificate errors and can be a useful 
alternative to full SSL inspection when you use web filtering.
Certificate inspection offers some level of security, but it does not allow FortiGate to inspect the flow of 
encrypted data between the outside server and the internal client.
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FortiGate has a read-only preconfigured profile for SSL certificate inspection named certificate-inspection. If 
you want to enable SSL certificate inspection, select this profile when configuring a firewall policy.
Alternatively, you can create your own profile for SSL certificate inspection by following the steps below:
1. On the FortiGate GUI, click Security Profiles > SSL/SSH Inspection.
2. Click Create New to create a new SSL/SSH inspection profile.
3. Select Multiple Clients Connecting to Multiple Servers, and click SSL Certificate Inspection.
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FortiGate must act as a CA in order for it to perform full SSL inspection. The internal CA must generate an 
SSL private key and certificate each time an internal user connects to an external SSL server. The key pair 
and certificate are generated immediately so the user connection with the web server is not delayed. 
Although it appears as though the user browser is connected to the web server, the browser is connected to 
FortiGate. FortiGate is acting as a proxy web server. In order for FortiGate to act in these roles, its CA 
certificate must have the basic constraints extension set to cA=True and the value of the keyUsage extension 
set to keyCertSign. 
The cA=True value identifies the certificate as a CA certificate. The keyUsage=keyCertSign value indicates 
that the certificate corresponding private key is permitted to sign certificates. For more information, see RFC 
5280 Section 4.2.1.9 Basic Constraints.
All FortiGate devices that support full SSL inspection can use the self-signed Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate thatis provided with FortiGate, or an internal CA, to issue FortiGate a CA certificate. When FortiGate uses an 
internal CA, FortiGate acts as a subordinate CA. Note that your client machines and devices must import the 
root CA certificate, in order to trust FortiGate and accept an SSL session. You must install the chain of CA 
certificates on FortiGate. FortiGate sends the chain of certificates to the client, so that the client can validate 
the signatures and build a chain of trust.
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Some FortiGate devices offer a mechanism to inspect encrypted data that flows between external SSL 
servers and internal clients. Without full SSL inspection, FortiGate cannot inspect encrypted traffic, because 
the firewall does not have the SSL key that is required to decrypt the data, and that was negotiated between 
client and server during the SSL handshake.
There are two possible configurations for full SSL inspection: one for outbound traffic and one for inbound 
traffic. 
If the connection request is outbound (initiated by an internal client to an external server), you must select the 
option, Multiple Clients Connecting to Multiple Servers. Then, you must select the CA certificate that will 
be used to sign the new certificates. In the example shown on this slide, it is the built-in FortiGate_CA_SSL
certificate, which is available on FortiGate devices that support SSL inspection. You will also learn about 
configuring full SSL inspection for inbound traffic in this lesson.
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In step 1, an internal web browser connects to an SSL-enabled web server. Normally, when a browser 
connects to a secure site, the web server sends its certificate to the browser. However, in step 2, FortiGate 
intercepts the web server certificate. In step 3, the FortiGate internal CA generates a new key pair and 
certificate. The new certificate subject name must be the DNS name of the website (for example, ex.ca). In 
steps 4 and 5, the new key pair and certificate are used to establish a secure connection between FortiGate 
and the web browser. A new temporary key pair and certificate are generated each time a client requests a 
connection with an external SSL server.
Outward facing and included in step 5, FortiGate uses the web server certificate to initiate a secure session 
with the web server. In this configuration, FortiGate can decrypt the data from both the web server and the 
browser, in order to scan the data for threats before re-encrypting it and sending it to its destination. This 
scenario is, essentially, an MITM attack.
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The browser presents a certificate warning when you attempt to access an HTTPS site that uses an untrusted 
certificate. Untrusted certificates include self-signed SSL certificates, unless the certificate is imported into the 
browser-trusted certificate store. FortiGate has its own configuration setting on the SSL/SSH Inspection 
page, which includes options to Allow, Block, or Ignore untrusted SSL certificates.
When you set the Untrusted SSL certificates setting to Allow and FortiGate detects an untrusted SSL 
certificate, FortiGate generates a temporary certificate signed by the built-in Fortinet_CA_Untrusted
certificate. FortiGate then sends the temporary certificate to the browser, which presents a warning to the user 
indicating that the site is untrusted. If FortiGate receives a trusted SSL certificate, then it generates a 
temporary certificate signed by the built-in Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate and sends it to the browser. If the 
browser trusts the Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate, the browser completes the SSL handshake. Otherwise, the 
browser also presents a warning message informing the user that the site is untrusted. In other words, for this 
function to work as intended, you must import the Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate into the trusted root CA 
certificate store of your browser. The Fortinet_CA_Untrusted certificate must not be imported.
When the setting is set to Block and FortiGate receives an untrusted SSL certificate, FortiGate blocks the 
connection outright, and the user cannot proceed. 
When the setting is set to Ignore, FortiGate sends the browser a temporary certificate signed by the 
Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate, regardless of the SSL certificate status—trusted or untrusted. FortiGate then 
proceeds to establish SSL sessions.
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The scenario shown on this slide describes how FortiGate handles a trusted external site regardless of the
Untrusted SSL Certificate setting. 
In step 1, the browser initiates a connection with an external site that is trusted by FortiGate. In step 2, the 
trusted server sends its SSL certificate to FortiGate. In step 3, FortiGate trusts the certificate because it has 
the corresponding CA certificate in its trusted certificate store. FortiGate can validate the signature on the SSL 
certificate. In step 4, because FortiGate trusts the SSL certificate, it generates a temporary certificate signed 
by the Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate. FortiGate sends the temporary certificate to the browser. Finally, in step 5, 
the browser trusts the temporary certificate because the Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate is in its trusted root CA 
store. After the browser finishes validating the certificate, it completes the SSL handshake with FortiGate. 
Next, FortiGate continues the SSL handshake with the trusted server.
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The scenario shown on this slide describes how FortiGate handles an untrusted external site when Untrusted 
SSL Certificate is set to Allow. 
In step 1, the browser initiates a connection with an external site that is not trusted by FortiGate. In step 2, the 
untrusted server sends its self-signed SSL certificate to FortiGate. In step 3, FortiGate does not find a copy of 
the certificate in its trusted certificate store and, therefore, does not trust the SSL certificate. In step 4, 
because FortiGate does not trust the SSL certificate, it generates a temporary certificate signed by the 
Fortinet_CA_Untrusted certificate. This temporary certificate is sent to the browser. In step 5, the browser 
does not trust the temporary certificate because it does not have the Fortinet_CA_Untrusted certificate in its 
trusted root CA store. The browser displays a warning alerting the user that the certificate is untrusted. If the 
user decides to ignore the warning and proceed, the browser completes the SSL handshake with FortiGate. 
Next, FortiGate continues the SSL handshake with the untrusted server.
The user may have the option to write this temporary certificate to the browser trusted certificate store. 
However, this has no impact in the future. The next time the user connects to the same untrusted site, a new 
temporary certificate is produced for the session. 
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The scenario shown on this slide describes how FortiGate handles an untrusted external site when Untrusted 
SSL Certificate is set to Block. 
In step 1, the browser initiates a connection with an external site that is not trusted by FortiGate. In step 2, the 
untrusted server sends its self-signed SSL certificate to FortiGate. In step 3, FortiGate does not find the 
certificate in its trusted certificate store and, therefore, does not trust the SSL certificate. In step 4, because 
FortiGate does not trust the SSL certificate, it stops the session. In step 5, FortiGate notifies the browser that 
the site is blocked.
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SSL Certificate is set to Ignore. 
In step 1, the browser initiates a connection with an external site that is not trusted by FortiGate. In step 2, the 
untrusted server sends its self-signed SSL certificate to FortiGate. Because the setting is set to Ignore, 
FortiGate does not check the certificate store. In step 3, FortiGate generates a temporary certificate signed by 
Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate, and sends the certificate to the browser. In step 4, the browser trusts the 
certificate because Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate is in its trusted root CA store. After the browser finishes 
checking the certificate, it completes the SSL handshake with FortiGate. Next, FortiGate continues the SSL 
handshake with the trusted server.
A connection to a trusted site is handled the same way.
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Within the full SSL inspection profile, you can also specify which SSL sites, if any, you want to exempt from 
SSL inspection. You may need to exempt traffic from SSL inspection if it is causing problems with traffic, or for 
legal reasons. 
Performing SSL inspection on a site that is enabled with HTTP public key pinning (HPKP), for example, can 
cause problems with traffic. Remember, the only way for FortiGate to inspect encrypted traffic is to intercept 
the certificate coming from the server, and generate a temporary one. After FortiGate presents the temporary 
SSL certificate, browsers that use HPKP refuse to proceed. The SSL inspection profile, therefore, allows you 
to exempt specific traffic.
Laws protecting privacy might be another reason to bypass SSL inspection. For example, in some countries, it 
is illegal to inspect SSL bank-related traffic. Configuring an exemption for sites is simpler than setting up 
firewall policies for each individual bank. You can exempt sites based on their web category, such as finance 
or banking, or you can exempt them based on their address. Alternatively, you can enable Reputable 
websites, which excludes an allowlist of reputable domain names maintained by FortiGuard from full SSL 
inspection. This list is periodically updated and downloaded to FortiGate devices through FortiGuard.
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FortiGate can detect certificates that are invalid for the following reasons:
• Expired: The certificate is expired.
• Revoked: The certificate has been revoked based on CRL or OCSP information.
• Validation timeout: The certificate could not be validated because of a communication timeout. 
• Validation failed: The certificate could not be validated because of a communication error.
When a certificate fails for any of the reasons above, you can configure any of the following actions:
• Keep untrusted & Allow: FortiGate allows the website and lets the browser decide the action to take. 
FortiGate takes the certificate as trusted.
• Block: FortiGate blocks the content of the site.
• Trust & Allow: FortiGate allows the website and takes the certificate as trusted.
The certificate check feature can be broken down into two major checks, which are done in parallel:
• FortiGate checks if the certificate is invalid because of the four reasons described on this slide.
• FortiGate performs certificate chain validation based on the CA certificates installed locally and the 
certificates presented by the SSL server. This is described in this lesson.
Based on the actions configured and the check results, FortiGate presents the certificate as either trusted 
(signed by Fortinet_CA_SSL) or untrusted (signed by Fortinet_CA_Untrusted), and either allows the content 
or blocks it. You can also track certificate anomalies by enabling the Log SSL anomalies option.
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You can enable SSH deep scan when you select Multiple Clients Connecting to Multiple Servers. When 
you enable SSH deep scan, FortiGate does an MITM attack for SSH traffic. A process similar to the one done 
for full SSL inspection takes place. FortiGate intercepts the SSH key sent by the server, generates a new one, 
and sends it to the client. If the SSH client had stored the original host key, then it detects a change in the host 
key and warns the user. The user can then replace the original host key with the new host key generated by 
FortiGate.
By default, SSH deep scan listens on TCP port 22. You can specify a different port number, or select Any in 
the SSH port field. When you do this, FortiGate scans all connections to identify SSH traffic using different 
ports. Specifying a port for SSH traffic is not as comprehensive as searching all ports, but it is easier on the 
performance of the firewall.
Finally, note that SSH deep scan is a proxy-based inspection feature only. In addition, the only security 
features that use SSH deep scan are antivirus and data leak prevention.
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In the example shown on this slide, FortiGate is protecting a web server. This is the second configuration 
option for full SSL inspection. When configuring the SSL inspection profile for this server, you must select 
Protecting SSL Server, import the server key pair to FortiGate, and then select the certificate from the 
Server Certificate drop-down list.
When Alice attempts to connect to the protected server, FortiGate becomes a surrogate web server by 
establishing the secure connection with the client using the server key pair. FortiGate also establishes a 
secure connection with the server, but acting as a client. This configuration allows FortiGate to decrypt the 
data from either direction, scan it, and if it is clean, re-encrypt it and send it to the intended recipient.
You must install the server certificate and private key plus the chain of certificates required to build the chain 
of trust. FortiGate sends the chain of certificates to the browser for this purpose.
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By creating a full SSL inspection profile on inbound traffic, you can configure the profile to use multiple web 
sites if they are approachable by the same external IP address. When FortiGate receives client and server 
hello messages, it selects the certificate to perform the full SSL inspection based on server name indication 
(SNI) value against the common name (CN) on the certificate part of the inspection profile. If a certificate CN 
matches the SNI on the request, FortiGate then selects this certificate to replace the original certificate and 
uses it to inspect the traffic.
If the SNI does not match the CN in the certificate list in the SSL profile, then FortiGate selects the first server 
certificate in the list.
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After you create and configure an SSL inspection profile, you must assign it to a firewall policy so FortiGate 
knows how to inspect encrypted traffic. Most of the internet traffic is being encrypted nowadays. For this 
reason, you usually want to enable SSL inspection to protect your network from security threats transported 
over encrypted traffic. If you don’t want to enable SSL or SSH inspection, select the no-inspection profile 
from the drop-down list. If SSL inspection is not enabled in a policy, FortiGate will not scan SSL or SSH 
encrypted traffic matching that policy.
If you select a profile with full SSL inspection enabled, the option Decrypted Traffic Mirror appears. Enable 
this option if you want FortiGate to send a copy of the decrypted SSL traffic to an interface. When you enable 
Decrypted Traffic Mirror, FortiGate displays a window with the termsof use for this feature. The user must 
agree with the terms before they can use the feature.
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When doing full SSL inspection using the FortiGate self-signed CA, your browser displays a certificate 
warning each time you connect to an HTTPS site. This is because the browser is receiving certificates signed 
by FortiGate, which is a CA it does not know and trust. The browser also displays a certificate warning when 
performing SSL certificate inspection and an HTTPS website is blocked by FortiGate. Because FortiGate 
needs to present a replacement message to the browser, FortiGate performs MITM and signs the certificate 
with its self-signed CA as well.
You can avoid this warning by doing one of the following:
• Download the Fortinet_CA_SSL certificate and install it on all the workstations as a trusted root authority. 
• Use an SSL certificate issued by a CA and ensure the certificate is installed in the necessary browsers.
You must install the SSL certificate on FortiGate and configure the device to use that certificate for SSL 
inspection. If the SSL certificate is signed by a subordinate CA, ensure that the entire chain of certificates—
from the SSL certificate to the root CA certificate—is installed on FortiGate. Verify that the root CA is installed 
on all client browsers. This is required for trust purposes. Because FortiGate sends the chain of certificates to 
the browser during the SSL handshake, you do not have to install the intermediate CA certificates on the 
browsers.
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Some security measures have been introduced by the IETF to mitigate MITM attacks. Some of these 
measures cause problems when you implement outbound full SSL inspection.
HTTP strict transport security (HSTS) and HTTP public key pinning (HPKP) are security features designed to 
thwart MITM attacks. HSTS is “a mechanism enabling websites to declare themselves accessible only 
through secure connections …”, according to RFC 6797 of the IETF. In other words, a user from a web 
browser would be forced to use HTTPS when connecting to a website with this policy; there would be no 
option to connect using HTTP. HPKP is a security feature imposed by the web server that associates one or 
more public keys with the website for a specified period of time. The public key doesn’t have to be the web 
server public key, it could be one of the intermediate or root CA public keys, as long as it exists in the 
certificate chain. When the web browser visits an HPKP-enabled website, hashes of the public keys 
associated with a website are cached on the client machine. 
Going forward, each time the web browser connects to the web server, it compares one or more of the keys 
presented with the cached key fingerprints. If the browser cannot match at least one of the keys, the SSL 
handshake terminates. This is a problem for outbound full SSL inspection. FortiGate generates a new 
certificate and public key to establish an SSL session with the web browser. FortiGate cannot provide an 
authentic certificate chain, so the connection would be rejected by the browser. Predictably, this could prevent 
users from connecting to many legitimate sites.
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The options available to circumvent HPKP are limited. One option is to exempt SSL inspection for those sites. 
Another option is to use SSL certificate inspection instead. A third option is to use a browser that does not 
support HPKP, like Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Edge. Last, in some browsers it is possible to disable HPKP.
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More and more applications are using SSL to securely exchange data over the internet. While most of the 
content in this lesson centers around the operation and impact of SSL inspection on browsers, the same 
applies to other applications using SSL as well. After all, the browser is just another application using SSL on 
your device.
For this reason, when you enable SSL inspection on FortiGate, you need to consider the potential impact on 
your SSL-based applications. For example, Microsoft Outlook 365 for Windows reports a certificate error 
when you enable full SSL inspection because the CA certificate used by FortiGate is not trusted. To solve this 
issue, you can import the CA certificate into your Windows certificate store as a trusted root certificate 
authority. Because Microsoft Outlook 365 trusts the certificates in the Windows certificate store, then the 
application won’t report the certificate error anymore. Another option is to exempt your Microsoft Exchange 
server addresses from SSL inspection. While this prevents the certificate error, you are no longer performing 
SSL inspection on email traffic.
There are other applications that have built-in extra security checks that prevent MITM attacks, such as HPKP 
or certificate pinning. For example, Dropbox uses certificate pinning to ensure that no SSL inspection is 
possible on user traffic. As a result, when you enable full SSL inspection on FortiGate, your Dropbox client 
stops working and reports that it can’t establish a secure connection. In the case of Dropbox, the only way to 
solve the connection error is by exempting the domains Dropbox connects to from SSL inspection.
In addition, remember that SSL is leveraged by different protocols, not just HTTP. For example, there are 
other SSL-based protocols such as FTPS, POP3S, SMTPS, STARTTLS, LDAPS, and SIP TLS. If you have 
an application using any of these SSL-based protocols, and you have turned on SSL inspection along with a 
security profile that inspects those protocols, then the applications may report an SSL or certificate error. The 
solution depends on the security measures adopted by the application.
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Good job! You now can describe certificate and deep inspection, and you can configure FortiGate to use 
either one of these options. 
Now, you will learn how to manage digital certificates on FortiGate.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in generating certificate requests, importing CRLs, and backing up and 
restoring certificates, you will be able to manage certificates on FortiGate.
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The process of obtaining a digital certificate for FortiGate begins with creating a certificate signing request 
(CSR). The process is as follows:
1. FortiGate generates a CSR. A private and public key pair is created for FortiGate. The CSR is signed by 
the FortiGate private key.
2. FortiGate submits the CSR to a CA. The CSR includes the FortiGate public key and specific information 
about FortiGate (IP address, distinguished name, email address, and so on). Note that the private key 
remains confidential on FortiGate.
3. The CA verifies that the information in the CSR is valid, and then creates a digital certificate for FortiGate. 
The certificate is digitally signed using the CA private key. The CA also publishes the certificate to a 
central repository. The certificate binds the public key to FortiGate.
4. The certificate is returned to install on FortiGate.
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You can generate a CSR on the Certificates page of the GUI by clicking Generate. Enter all of the required 
information, such as theIP address (or FQDN) and company name. Ensure the key type and size fit your 
requirements. You can submit the CSR to a CA using either of the following methods:
• Select File Based to generate the CSR as a .csr file, which is then sent to the CA. 
• Select Online SCEP to submit the CSR to the CA online using the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol 
(SCEP). For example, if you are using FortiAuthenticator as your CA, you can enable and configure SCEP 
on FortiAuthenticator and use this method.
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If you are using the file-based method, the CSR is added to your list of certificates on the Certificates page. 
Select the CSR and click Download. The administrator can now submit the file (.csr), which is a PKCS#10 
request, to the CA. PKCS#10 is the most common format for a certificate request. The CA uses this file to 
generate a signed certificate.
If using the online SCEP method, enter the CA server URL used for SCEP and the challenge password 
provided by the CA administrator. The CSR is automatically submitted online.
After the CSR is submitted using either method, FortiGate shows the certificate status as Pending until the 
certificate is returned by the CA and imported into FortiGate. At this point, the status changes to Valid and the 
digital certificate can be used.
Note that if you delete the CSR, you cannot install the certificate and you must start over.
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The file-based method of submitting a CSR is a manual process. The SCEP process, which occurs 
automatically online, requires no manual file import. 
You can import the certificate from the Certificates page. Click Import and select Local Certificate. On the 
Import Certificate dialog, in the Type field, select Local Certificate and browse to the CER file provided by 
the CA.
After you import the certificate, the status changes from Pending to Valid. Note that it is possible to add a 
certificate that FortiGate uses in SSL communications without generating and signing a CSR. The CA can 
create a certificate for your FortiGate without a CSR (though the CA is responsible for providing all the 
certificate details for your FortiGate device). In this way, you can add a certificate using the following methods: 
• Upload a PKCS#12 file, which is a single file that includes the signed certificate file and the key file
• Upload both a certificate file and the key file
An administrator user with the super_admin profile can put a password on a certificate and control access to 
its private key.
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You can also import local certificate which gets provisioned by an external service using the ACME protocol. 
Defined in RFC 8555, automated local certificate import can use the public Let’s Encrypt CA to provide free 
SSL server certificates. You can configure FortiGate to use a certificate managed by Let’s Encrypt and other 
certificate management services that use the ACME protocol.
Importing ACME certificates must meet the following criteria:
• FortiGate must have a public IP address and a hostname FQDN that resolves to the same public IP 
address.
• The public facing interface that ACME can access must have no virtual IP configured to forward port 80 
(HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS). The interface has to listen for ACME update requests.
• SAN field is automatically filed with the FortiGate FQDN. It cannot be edited or allowed to have multiple 
SANs or wildcards.
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When FortiGate is validating a certificate, it checks that the certificate serial number is not listed in a CRL 
imported to FortiGate. 
You can import a CRL from the Certificates page by clicking Import > CRL. In the Import CRL dialog, you 
can select one of these four import options: HTTP, LDAP, SCEP, and File Based. The first three options 
point to external repositories and require you to connect to the repositories to upload the CRL to FortiGate. 
The last option, File Based, requires you to have the CRL file locally stored before you can upload the CRL to 
FortiGate.
Before the CRL expires, FortiGate automatically retrieves the latest iteration using the protocol specified in the 
configuration. 
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When you back up the FortiGate configuration, the keys and certificates are backed up as well. 
FortiGate also provides the option to store digital certificates as a PKCS#12 file, which includes the private 
and public keys as well as the certificate. You can restore the PKCS#12 file to a FortiGate device of any 
model or firmware version, or to a non-FortiGate device. 
You can perform the backup and restore on the CLI only, which requires the use of a TFTP server.
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You can configure a CA and local certificate globally or for a VDOM. If you upload a certificate to a VDOM, it 
is accessible only inside that VDOM. If you upload a certificate globally, it is accessible to all VDOMs and 
globally.
Global and VDOM-based certificate configuration includes the ability to view certificate details, as well as to 
download, delete, and import certificates.
Note that some of the FortiGate certificates have specific signature algorithms and key lengths in their names, 
such as Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm 256 (ECDSA256) and RSA2048. Policy and technical 
requirements may determine which certificates you use.
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If you are using an SSL certificate issued by a private CA, you must install the CA certificate in the list of 
trusted CAs. If you fail to do this, a warning message appears in your web browser any time you access an 
HTTPS website. Encrypted communications might also fail, simply because the CA that issued and signed the 
certificate is untrusted.
Once you download the SSL certificate from FortiGate, you can install it on any web browser or operating 
system. Not all browsers use the same certificate repository. For example, Firefox uses its own repository, 
while Internet Explorer and Chrome store certificates in a system-wide repository. In order to avoid certificate 
warnings, you need to install the SSL certificate as a trusted root CA.
When you install the certificate, make sure that you save it to the certificate store for root authorities.
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how FortiGate uses certificates, and how to 
manage and work with certificates in your network.
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In this lesson, you will learn how to configure web filtering on FortiGate to control web traffic in your network.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in understanding inspection modes, you will be able to implement theappropriate inspection modes to support the desired security profiles.
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Each inspection component plays a role in processing traffic on its way to its destination. Having control over 
flow-based and proxy-based mode is helpful if you want to be sure that only flow-based inspection mode is 
used. In most cases, proxy mode is preferred because more security profile features and more configuration 
options are available. However, some implementations require all security profile scanning to use only flow-
based inspection mode for the highest possible throughput. You can configure the firewall policy to use flow-
based mode (which is the default option for a new policy), and vice versa. While both modes offer significant 
security, proxy-based mode is more thorough while flow-based mode is designed to optimize performance.
You can select the inspection mode in a firewall policy. Switching from flow-based to proxy-based mode will 
not require removing the selected security profiles on the policy. However, switching from proxy-based to 
flow-based mode will remove any security profiles configured to use proxy-based inspection mode.
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Flow-based inspection mode examines the file as it passes through FortiGate, without any buffering. As each 
packet arrives, it is processed and forwarded without waiting for the complete file or web page. If you are 
familiar with the TCP flow analysis of Wireshark, then that is essentially what the flow engine sees. Packets 
are analyzed and forwarded as they are received. Original traffic is not altered. Therefore, advanced features 
that modify content, such as safe search enforcement, are not supported.
The advantages of flow-based mode are:
• The user sees a faster response time for HTTP requests compared to proxy based
• There is less chance of a time-out error because of the server at the other end responding slowly
The disadvantages of flow-based mode are:
• A number of security features that are available in proxy-based mode are not available in flow-based mode
• Fewer actions are available based on the categorization of the website by FortiGuard services
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Proxy-based scanning refers to transparent proxy. It’s called transparent because, at the IP layer, FortiGate is 
not the destination address, but FortiGate does intercept the traffic. When proxy-based inspection is enabled, 
FortiGate buffers traffic and examines it as a whole, before determining an action. Because FortiGate 
examines the data as a whole, it can examine more points of data than it does when using flow-based 
inspection. 
In TCP connections, the FortiGate proxy generates the SYN-ACK to the client, and completes the three-way 
handshake with the client, before creating a second, new connection to the server. If the payload is less than 
the oversize limit, the proxy buffers transmitted files or emails for inspection, before continuing transmission. 
The proxy analyzes the headers and may change the headers, such as HTTP host and URL, for web filtering. 
If a security profile decides to block the connection, the proxy can send a replacement message to the client.
This adds latency to the overall transmission speed. 
Proxy-based inspection is more thorough than flow-based inspection, yielding fewer false positives and 
negative results.
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FortiGate web filters are also security profiles. The security profiles are customizable, according to the 
selected inspection mode. So, the first step, before setting up a web filter, is to configure the inspection mode.
The protocol options profile determines the protocols your security profiles use, for example, to inspect web or 
DNS traffic. 
Note that HTTPS inspection port numbers, and other settings related to the handling of SSL, are defined 
separately in the SSL/SSH inspection profile.
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FortiGate, or the individual VDOM, has two next-generation firewall (NGFW) modes available:
1. Profile-based mode: Requires administrators to create and use application control and web filter profiles 
and apply them to a firewall policy. Profile-based mode is applicable to use flow-based or proxy-based 
inspection mode as per the policy.
2. Policy-based mode: Administrators can apply application control and web filter configuration directly to a 
security policy. Flow-based inspection mode is the only applicable process available in policy-based 
NGFW mode.
Antivirus scanning is available as a security profile that you can apply in a profile-based NGFW mode firewall 
policy or policy-based NGFW mode security policy.
You can change NGFW mode in the system settings of FortiGate or the individual VDOM. Note that the 
change will require you to remove all existing policies in either mode.
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If you configured FortiGate to use NGFW policy-based mode or created a VDOM specifically to provide 
NGFW policy-based mode, you must configure a few policies to allow traffic.
SSL Inspection & Authentication (consolidated) policy: This allows traffic from a specific user or user group to 
match the criteria specified within the consolidated policy and inspect SSL traffic using the SSL inspection 
profile selected. FortiGate can either accept or deny the traffic.
Security policy: If the traffic is allowed as per the consolidated policy, FortiGate then processes it based on the 
security policy to analyze additional criteria, such as URL categories for web filtering and application control. 
Also, if enabled, the security policy further inspects traffic using security profiles such as AV, IPS, and file 
filter.
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Good job! You now understand inspection modes.
Now, you will learn about web filtering basics.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in web filtering basics, you will be able to describe web filter profiles, use 
FortiGuard web filter profiles, configure web filter overrides, define custom categories, and submit FortiGuard
rating requests.
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Web filtering helps to control, or track, the websites that people visit. There are many reasons why network 
administrators apply web filtering, including to:
• Preserve employee productivity
• Prevent network congestion, where valuable bandwidth is used for non-business purposes
• Prevent loss or exposure of confidential information
• Decrease exposure to web-based threats
• Limit legal liability when employees access or download inappropriate or offensive material
• Prevent copyright infringement caused by employees downloading or distributing copyrighted materials
• Prevent children from viewing inappropriate material
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(slide contains animation)
The example on this slide shows the flow of an HTTP filter process.
FortiGate looks for the HTTP GET request to collect URL information and perform web filtering.
So, as shown, in HTTP the domain name and URL are separate pieces. The domain name might look like the 
following in the header: Host: www.acme.com, and the URL might look like the following in the header: 
/index.php?login=true.
If you filter by domain, sometimes it blocks toomuch. For example, the blogs on tumblr.com are considered 
different content, because of all the different authors. In that case, you can be more specific, and block by the 
URL part, tumblr.com/hacking, for example.
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Now, you will look at the web filter profile.
You can configure this security profile to use a feature set for proxy-based or flow-based inspection modes. 
However, depending on the mode you select, the available settings are different. Flow-based inspection has 
fewer available options.
In the examples shown on this slide, the web filter profile has a FortiGuard category-based filter that 
categorizes the websites based on categories and subcategories by FortiGuard. FortiGate offers two NGFW 
options:
• Profile-Based (default)
• Web filters are defined as security profiles and applied to the firewall policy
• Policy-Based
• URL categories are defined directly under the firewall policy
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In the example shown on this slide, the security profile is configured to use a proxy-based feature set. The 
profile is available to a firewall policy configured to use proxy-based inspection mode. Other local options 
include:
• Search Engines
• Static URL Filter
• Rating Options
• Proxy Options
After you configure your web filter profile, apply this profile to your firewall policy so the filtering is applied to 
your web traffic.
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Rather than block or allow websites individually, FortiGuard category filtering looks at the category that a 
website has been rated with. Then, FortiGate takes action based on that category, not based on the URL. 
FortiGuard category filtering is a live service that requires an active contract. The contract validates 
connections to the FortiGuard network. If the contract expires, there is a two-day grace period during which
you can renew the contract before the service cuts off. If you do not renew, after the two-day grace period, 
FortiGate reports a rating error for every rating request made. In addition, by default, FortiGate blocks web 
pages that return a rating error. You can change this behavior by enabling the Allow websites when a rating 
error occurs setting. You will learn more about this setting in this lesson.
You can configure FortiManager to act as a local FortiGuard server. To do this, you must download the 
databases to FortiManager, and configure FortiGate to validate the categories against FortiManager, instead 
of FortiGuard.
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Website categories are determined by both automatic and human methods. The FortiGuard team has 
automatic web crawlers that look at various aspects of the website in order to come up with a rating. There 
are also people who examine websites and look into rating requests to determine categories.
To review the complete list of categories and subcategories, visit 
www.fortiguard.com/webfilter/categories.
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So, how does it work?
FortiGate queries the FDN—or FortiManager, if it has been configured to act as a local FortiGuard server—to 
determine the category of a requested web page.
When users visit websites, FortiGate uses the FortiGuard live service to determine the category that the URL 
belongs to and takes a configured action for that category, such as allow or block access. Using this feature, 
you can perform bulk URL filtering, without individually defining each website.
You can enable the FortiGuard category filtering on the web filter, or DNS filter profiles. Categories and 
subcategories are listed, and you can customize the actions to perform individually.
The actions available depend on the mode of inspection:
• Proxy: Allow, Block, Monitor, Warning, and Authenticate
• Flow-based, profile-based: Allow, Block, Monitor, Warning, and Authenticate
• Flow-based, policy-based: Action defined in a security policy (accept or deny)
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The warning action informs users that the requested website is not allowed by the internet policies. However, 
the action gives the user the option to proceed to the requested website, or return to the previous website.
You can customize the warning interval, so you can present this warning page at specific times, according to
the configured period.
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The authenticate action blocks the requested websites, unless the user enters a successful username and 
password.
You can customize the interval of time to allow access. Users are not prompted to authenticate again if they 
access other websites in the same category until the timer expires.
Choosing this action prompts you to define user groups that are allowed to override the block.
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The Threat Feeds feature enables FortiGate to dynamically import external block lists from an HTTP server. 
You can use the block lists to enforce special security requirements specified by your organization. These
requirements can include long-term policies to always block access to specific websites, or short-term 
requirements to block access to known compromised locations. These block lists are text files that are in plain 
text format, where each line contains a single URL to be blocked.
Because the lists are dynamically imported, any changes made to the list are instantly imported by FortiOS
using the Security Fabric feature. 
FortiGuard Category: This resource name appears as a remote category in web filter profiles and SSL 
inspection exemptions.
IP Address: This resource name appears as an external IP block list in DNS filter profiles and as a
source/destination in IPv4 policy, IPv6, and Proxy policy.
Domain Name: This resource name will appear as a remote category in DNS filter profiles.
Refresh Rate: Using this setting, you can specify how often, in minutes, block lists can be refreshed from the 
external source.
The size of the block list file can be 10 MB or 128,000 lines of text, whichever is most restrictive.
Note that the DNS profile supports only IPv4 addresses and ignores IPv6 addresses.
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You can add dynamic block lists to: 
• Web filter profiles and SSL inspection exemptions
• DNS filter profiles and source/destination addresses in firewall policies
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When using FortiGuard category filtering to allow or block access to a website, one option is to make a web 
rating override and define the website in a different category. Web ratings are only for host names—no URLs 
or wildcard characters are allowed.
If the contract expires, and the two-day grace period passes, web rating overrides are not be effective. All 
website category rating requests are returned with a rating error.
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If you want to make an exception, for example, rather than unblock access to a potentially unwanted category, 
change the website to an allowed category. You can also do the reverse. You can block a website that 
belongs to an allowed category.
Remember that changing categories does not automatically result in a different action for the website. This
depends on the settings within the web filter profile.
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If the predefined categories in FortiGuard are not suitable for the situation, you can add additional custom 
categories.You can add and delete custom categories as needed, as long as they are not in use.
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Static URL filtering is another web filter feature. Configured URLs in the URL filter are checked against the 
visited websites. If a match is found, the configured action is taken. URL filtering has the same patterns as 
static domain filtering: simple, regular expressions, and wildcard.
Take a look at how it works.
When a user visits a website, FortiGate looks at the URL list for a matching entry. In the example shown on 
this slide, the website matches the third entry in the table, which is set as type Simple. This type means that 
the match must be exact—there is no option for a partial match with this pattern. Also, the action is set to 
Block, so FortiGate displays a block page message.
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There is always the possibility for errors in ratings, or a scenario where you simply do not agree with the rating 
given. In that case, you can use the web portal to contact the FortiGuard team to submit a website for a new 
rating, or get it rated if it is not already in the database.
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Good job! You now understand the basics of web filtering.
Now, you will learn about additional proxy-based web filtering features.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in additional proxy-based web filtering features, you will be able to configure 
usage quotas, web profile overrides, search engine filters, and web content filtering.
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FortiGate also includes a feature to customize the quotas of time to access the categories that are set to 
monitor, warning, or authenticate in the web filter profile in proxy-based inspection mode.
You can customize multiple quotas (timers). Each quota can be applied to either a single category or multiple 
categories. If the quota applies to multiple categories, the timer is shared among all the categories instead of 
having a single timer for each individual category.
FortiGate automatically assigns quotas for each source IP, or each user if the authentication action is used, as 
the dashboard monitor shows. By default, the dashboard monitor is not added. You can click the + symbol to 
add FortiGuard Quota monitor to the User & Authentication section.
Now, take a look at how quotas work.
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As shown on this slide, the FortiGuard quota limits the time users spend on websites, based on category. You 
can also set a quota, on the amount of traffic that can be allowed to a particular category.
A quota cannot redirect the user once the website is loaded in their browser. For example, if the user has 45 
seconds left in their quota, and they access a website from the specified category, the selected website will 
likely finish loading before the remaining 45 seconds are up. Then, the user can stay on that website, and that 
website won’t be blocked until the browser is refreshed. This scenario occurs because the connection to the 
website is not, usually, a live stream. After you receive the information, the connection is closed.
Note that the quota resets every 24 hours at midnight.
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You can also override the filter profile. Web profile overrides change the rules that are used to inspect traffic. 
Overrides authorize specified users, user groups, or predefined source IPs, to use a different web filter profile 
to inspect their traffic.
In the example shown on this slide, the new profile applied to the user student, inspects all of that user’s web 
traffic from the time that the new profile is applied, until the timer expires. To use this override, you must 
enable an override authentication. When you enable the web profile override, the FortiGuard block page 
shows a link you can select to activate the override.
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Search engine filtering is available when you configure a web filter profile while setting the feature set to 
proxy-based.
Safe search is an option that some browsers support. It applies internal filters to the search results. When you 
enable safe search for the supported search sites, FortiGate appends code to the URL to enforce the use of 
safe search. For example, on a Google search, FortiGate adds the string &safe=active to the URL in the 
search. So, even if it is not locally enabled in the browser, FortiGate applies safe search to the requests when 
they pass through. Safe search is supported for Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex.
As a proxy-based web filter feature, search engine filtering is supported only when using full SSL inspection
because FortiGate requires access to the full header.
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You can also control web content in the web filter profile by blocking access to websites containing specific 
words or patterns. This helps to prevent access to sites with questionable material. 
You can add words, phrases, patterns, wildcards, and Perl regular expressions to match content on websites. 
You configure this feature on a per-web-filter-profile basis, not at the global level. So, it is possible to add 
multiple web content filter lists and then select the best list for each web filter profile.
The system administrator can specify banned words and phrases and attach a numerical value, or score, to 
the importance of those words and phrases. When the web content filter scan detects banned content, it adds 
the scores of banned words and phrases on the page. If the sum is higher than the threshold set in the web 
filter profile, FortiGate blocks the site.
The maximum number of web content patterns in a list is 5000.
Like search engine filtering, web content filtering requires that FortiGate uses deep SSL inspection because 
FortiGate requires full access to the packet headers.
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You can use advanced web filtering settings to improve the web filter. 
The rating options are as follows:
1. Allow websites when a rating error occurs. If a rating error occurs from the FortiGuard web filter 
service, users have full unfiltered access to all websites.
2. Rate URLs by domain and IP Address. This option sends both the URL and the IP address of the 
requested site for checking, providing additional security against attempts to bypass the FortiGuard 
system.
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If you configure the web filter profile to use a proxy-based feature set, the advanced proxy option settings for 
web filtering are as follows:
1. Block access to some Google accounts and services. You can include an exception list.
2. HTTP POST is the command used by your browser when you send information, so you can limit the 
information and files to websites. The Allow option prevents a server timeout when scanning, or when 
other filtering processes are performed for outgoing traffic.
3. Filter cookies, Java applets, and ActiveX scripts from web traffic.
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Good job! You now understand additional proxy-based web filtering features.
Now, you will learnabout video filtering.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in video filtering, you will be able to control access to YouTube using 
FortiGuard categories and YouTube static IDs.
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Video filtering allows you to control access to YouTube content using parameters that are associated with the 
video channel, video categories, or the video itself. It is part of the FortiGuard service, which requires a 
separate license bundled with the other security FortiGuard services.
To apply the video filter profile, proxy-based firewall polices currently allow you to enable the video filter 
profile. You must enable full SSL inspection on the firewall policy.
You must obtain a YouTube API key to use the video filter feature. The API key allows FortiGate to match 
parameters identified when users access YouTube content, and match the parameters with the local 
categories defined on the video filter.
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The YouTube API can help you to configure a video filter on FortiGate, and control access to content based 
on the content categories. You must have access to the Google developer console to obtain the API key. For 
more information about the Google developer console, visit cloud.google.com.
To obtain the YouTube API key:
1. Create a new project on the Google developer console.
2. Continue to fill in the project information by selecting your organization name and location.
3. In APIs and services, click ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES to add YouTube data API v3 from the 
library.
4. Enable the API and create a new credential to generate the API key.
Now the key is generated, you can add the key to FortiGate on CLI. Create a new object under config
videofilter youtube-key and add the key using command set key “youtube_api_key”.
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The video filter can identify videos using universal categories used by major online video content providers, 
such as YouTube. The generic classification combines multiple categories by these providers into one 
category. For example, the FortiGuate video category Entertainment includes YouTube categories, such as 
entertainment, comedy, movies, shows, and trailers.
The FortiGuard video categories are universal, to cover the common classifications used in the categories of 
online video content providers. Currently, it is applicable to content hosted by YouTube, Vimeo, and 
Dailymotion. Some of these providers offer API queries that enable FortiGate to identify the content and 
match it to local FortiGuard video categories.
In a video filter profile, if a FortiGuard category is allowed, the video content bypasses the rest of the security 
checks configured on the video profile, such as channel override and YouTube restriction level. If the action is 
set to monitor or block, then the video content undergoes further security checks configured on the video filter 
profile.
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You can restrict YouTube access on a video filter by setting the restriction level to Moderate or Strict. When 
users access YouTube content using the firewall policy with the video filter profile applied, the users are given 
only content that is screened according to a filter applied by Google. Moderate restricted access is similar to 
strict but makes more videos available.
The YouTube channel ID is used to identify YouTube channels. It allows FortiGate to apply actions to access 
related content on the channel. These actions can allow, monitor, or block access to the channel. If a video 
filter has a channel override to block a specific YouTube channel, access to this channel is stopped only to 
this particular channel. If a user attempts to access the channel while surfing YouTube content, an error 
message appears telling the user that they must connect to the internet. If the user accesses the channel 
using the URL, a blocked replacement message shows up to confirm the reason why access is blocked.
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Good job! You now understand the video filtering feature.
Now, you will learn about DNS and file filtering.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in DNS and file filtering, you will be able to apply a DNS and file filters on 
FortiGate.
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You can also inspect DNS traffic using the DNS filter security profile.
Rather than looking at the HTTP protocol, this option filters the DNS request that occurs before an HTTP GET 
request. This has the advantage of being very lightweight, but at a cost, because it lacks the precision of 
HTTP filtering.
Although DNS traffic is plain text, it can be encapsulated within a DNS over TLS (DoT) or DNS over HTTPS 
(DoH) payload. You can use the SSL inspection profile on the firewall policy to decrypt the payload and apply 
the DNS filter on the original DNS request.
Every protocol generates DNS requests in order to resolve a host name; therefore, this kind of filtering 
impacts all of the higher level protocols that depend on DNS, not just web traffic. For example, it could apply 
FortiGuard categories to DNS requests for FTP servers. Very few web filtering features are possible beyond 
host name filtering because of the amount of data available at the point of inspection.
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(slide contains animation)
This example illustrates filtering at the DNS lookup process.
DNS filtering looks at the nameserver response, which typically occurs when you connect to a website. 
As discussed previously, in HTTP, the domain name and URL are separate pieces. The domain name might 
look like this in the header: Host: www.acme.com, and the URL might look like this in the header: 
/index.php?login=true.
When a device initiates a DNS lookup, it sends the FQDN information in the initial request. The DNS lookup 
occurs before the HTTP request can be sent.
When FortiGate receives the DNS request from the client, it sends a simultaneous request to the FortiGuard 
SDNS servers. With the FortiGuard SDNS service, there are two possible results:
1. Category is allowed: The original DNS response is passed and the remainder of the connection flow 
continues normally through to the HTTP 200 response. At this point, other web filters might be applied.
2. Category is blocked: FortiGate overrides the site IP address with the FortiGuard override address and 
presents a DNS error to the client.
As a result, if you are using a DNS filter, and the domain is blocked, the connection is blocked before the 
HTTP request is even sent.
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Here’s a look at the DNS filter profile.
The DNS filter includes various configuration settings. You can enable or disable the FortiGuard category-
based filter and the static domain filter. You also have the option to:
• Redirect botnet command and control requests to block portal
• Allow DNS requests when a rating error occurs from the FortiGuard web filter service
• Redirect blocked requests to a specific portal (the Use FortiGuard Default setting is recommended)
Using the DNS Translation feature, you can translate a DNS-resolved IP address to another IP addressyou 
specify on a per-policy basis.
After you enable and save the settings you require, remember to apply this profile to your firewall policy to 
activate the options. Any traffic being examined by the policy has those operations applied to it.
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So, how does it work?
FortiGate queries the FortiGuard SDNS servers—or FortiManager, if it has been configured to act as a local 
FortiGuard server—to identify the category of a requested website.
When users visit websites, FortiGate uses the FortiGuard SDNS service to identify the category that the URL 
belongs to and takes a configured action for that category, such as allow, or redirect to a block portal. Using 
this feature, you can perform bulk URL filtering, without individually defining each website.
You can enable the FortiGuard category filtering on DNS filter profiles, just as for web filter profiles. 
Categories and subcategories are listed, and you can customize the actions to perform individually.
DNS filtering supports the following actions:
• Allow
• Redirect to block portal
• Monitor
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You can configure DNS filtering to allow, redirect to a block portal, or monitor access to websites through the 
static domain filter. Entries in the domain list are checked against the DNS requests. If a match is found, the 
configured action is taken.
Patterns set to Simple are exact text matches. Patterns set to Wildcard allow for some flexibility in the text 
pattern by allowing wildcard characters and partial matching to occur. Patterns set to Reg. Expression allow 
for the use of PCRE regular expressions.
With this feature, you can prevent many HTTP requests from ever being made, because the initial lookup 
fails.
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When you enable Block DNS requests to known botnet C&C in your DNS filter profile, DNS lookups are 
checked against the botnet command and control database. This database is dynamically updated from 
FortiGuard and stored on FortiGate. 
All matching DNS lookups are blocked. Matching uses a reverse prefix match, so all subdomains are also 
blocked.
This service requires an active IPS and web filtering license.
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The file filter profile can provide file filtering when enabled on firewall policies. It inspects files traversing over 
HTTP and other protocols, such as FTP and SSH.
You can select supported file types, such as compressed files and javascript content, when creating a new file 
filter rule. The rule can also specify whether to log or block files entering or leaving the network, or both.
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Good job! You now understand DNS and file filtering.
Now, you will learn about best practices and troubleshooting.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in best practices and troubleshooting, you will be able to apply various best 
practices and troubleshooting techniques to avoid and investigate common issues.
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Remember that the web filtering profile has several features. So, if you have enabled many of them, the 
inspection order flows as follows: 
1. The local static URL filter
2. FortiGuard category filtering (to determine a rating)
3. Advanced filters (such as safe search or removing Active X components)
For each step, if there is no match, FortiGate moves on to the next check enabled.
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You have configured your security profiles, but they are not performing web or DNS inspection. Why?
Check to see if you have applied the security profiles to your firewall policies. Also, make sure that the SSL 
inspection profile is applied as needed.
Additionally, to use the FortiGate DNS filter, you must use the FortiGuard SDNS service for DNS lookups. 
DNS lookup requests sent to the FortiGuard SDNS service return with an IP address and a domain rating that 
includes the FortiGuard category of the website. As a result, for this mechanism to work, the FortiGuard
SDNS service must be reachable by FortiGate.
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Category-based filtering requires a live connection to FortiGuard.
You can verify the connection to FortiGuard servers by running the diagnose debug rating CLI
command. This command displays a list of FortiGuard servers you can connect to, as well as the following 
information:
• Weight: Based on the difference in time zone between FortiGate and this server (modified by traffic)
• RTT: Return trip time
• Flags: D (IP returned from DNS), I (Contract server contacted), T (being timed), F (failed)
• TZ: Server time zone
• FortiGuard-requests: The number of requests sent by FortiGate to FortiGuard
• Curr Lost: Current number of consecutive lost FortiGuard requests (in a row, resets to 0 when one 
packet succeeds)
• Total Lost: Total number of lost FortiGuard requests
The list is of variable length depending on the FortiGuard Distribution Network.
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FortiGate can maintain a list of recent website rating responses in memory. So, if the URL is already known, 
FortiGate doesn’t send back a rating request.
By default, FortiGate is configured to enforce the use of HTTPS port 443 to perform live filtering with 
FortiGuard or FortiManager. Other ports and protocols are available by disabling the FortiGuard anycast
setting on the CLI. These ports and protocols to query the servers (FortiGuard or FortiManager) HTTPS port 
53 and port 8888, UDP port 443, port 53, and port 8888. If you are using UDP port 53, any kind of inspection 
reveals that this traffic is not DNS and prevents the service from working. In this case, you can switch to the 
alternate UDP port 443 or port 8888, or change the protocol to HTTPS, but these ports are not guaranteed to 
be open in all networks, so you must check beforehand.
Caching responses reduces the amount of time it takes to establish a rating for a website. Also, memory 
lookup is much quicker than packets travelling on the internet.
The timeout defaults to 15 seconds, but you can set it as high as 30 seconds, if necessary.
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Now, take a look at the web filter log and report feature.
This slide shows an example of a log message. Access details include information about the FortiGuard quota 
and category (if those are enabled), which web filter profile was used to inspect the traffic, the URL, and more 
details about the event.
You can also view the raw log data by clicking the download icon at the top of the GUI. The file downloaded is 
a plain text file in a syslog format.
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in the lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to configure web filtering on FortiGate to 
control web traffic in your network.
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In this lesson, you will learn how to monitor and control network applications that may use standard or non-
standard protocols and ports—beyond simply blocking or allowing a protocol, port number, or IP address.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in application control basics, you will be able to understand how application 
control works on FortiGate.
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Application control detects applications—often applications that consume a lot of bandwidth—and allows you 
to take appropriate action related to application traffic, such as monitoring, blocking, or applying traffic 
shaping. 
Application control identifies applications, such as Google Talk, by matching known patterns to the 
application’s transmission patterns. Therefore, an application can be accurately identified, only if its 
transmission pattern is unique. However, not every application behaves in a unique way. Many applications 
reuse pre-existing, standard protocols and communication methods. For example, many video games, such 
as World of Warcraft, use the BitTorrent protocol to distribute game patches.
Application control can be configured in proxy-based and flow-based firewall policies. However, because 
application control uses the IPS engine, which uses flow-based inspection, inspection is always flow-based. 
By comparison, when applying web filtering and antivirus through an HTTP proxy, the proxy first parses HTTP 
and removes the protocol, and then scans only the payload inside.
Why does FortiGate use a flow-based scan for application control?
Unlike other forms of security profiles, such as web filtering or antivirus, application control is not applied by a 
proxy. It uses an IPS engine to analyze network traffic and detect application traffic, even if the application is 
using standard or non-standard protocols and ports. It doesn’t operate using built-in protocol states. It 
matches patterns in the entire byte stream of the packet, and then looks for patterns. 
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When HTTP and other protocols were designed, they were designed to be easy to trace. Because of that, 
administrators could easily give access to single servers behind NAT devices, such as routers and, later, 
firewalls.
But when P2P applications were designed, they had to be able to work without assistance—or cooperation—
from network administrators. In order to achieve this, the designers made P2P applications able to bypass 
firewalls and incredibly hard to detect. Port randomization, pinholes, and changing encryption patterns are 
some of the techniques that P2P protocols use.
These techniques make P2P applications difficult to block using a firewall policy, and also make them difficult 
to detect by proxy-based inspection.
Flow-based inspection using the IPS engine can analyze packets for pattern matching, and then look for 
patterns to detect P2P applications.
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This slide shows a traditional, client-server architecture. There may be many clients of popular sites, but often, 
such as with an office file server, it’s just one client and one server.
Traditional downloads use a defined protocol over a standard port number. Whether it’s from a web or FTP 
site, the download is from a single IP address, to a single IP address. So, blocking this kind of traffic is easy: 
you only need one firewall policy.
But, it’s more difficult to block traffic from peer-to-peer downloads. Why?
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Peer-to-peer (P2P) downloads divide each file among multiple (theoretically unlimited) peers. Each peer 
delivers part of the file. While having many clients is a disadvantage in client-server architectures, it is an 
advantage for P2P architecture because, as the number of peers increases to n, the file is delivered n times 
faster.
Because popularity increases the speed of delivery—unlike traditional client-server architecture where 
popularity could effectively cause a denial of service (DoS) attack on the server—some software, such as 
BitTorrent distributions of Linux, and games distributing new patches, leverage this advantage. Even if each 
client has little bandwidth, together they can offer more bandwidth for the download than many powerful 
servers. 
Consequently, in order to download the file, the requesting peer can consume much more bandwidth per 
second than it would from only a single server. Even if there is only one peer in your network, it can consume 
unusually large amounts of bandwidth. Because the protocols are usually evasive, and there will be many 
sessions to many peers, they are difficult to completely block. 
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Before you try to control applications, it’s important to understand the signatures used by application control. 
How does application control detect the newest applications and changes to application protocols?
Application control requires a subscription to FortiGuard application control. The database for application 
control signatures is separate from the intrusion prevention system (IPS) database. You can configure 
FortiGate to automatically update its application control signature database on the FortiGuard page. The 
application control signature database information is also displayed on the FortiGuard page. 
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You can view the latest version of the application control database on the FortiGuard website, or by clicking 
an individual application signature in the application control profile.
The application control database provides details about application control signatures based on category, 
popularity, and risk, to name a few. 
When building an application control signature, the FortiGuard security research team evaluates the 
application and assigns a risk level. The assigned risk level is based on the type of security risk. The rating is 
Fortinet-specific, and not related to the common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) or other external 
systems. If you aren’t aware of the specific application, this information can help you to decide if it would be 
wise to block an application or not.
On the FortiGuard website, you can read details about each signature’s related application.
On this slide, you can see an example article for Tor is a web proxy, so it belongs in the proxy category. It is a 
good practice to create test policies that you can use to observe policy behavior.
If there are new applications that you need to control, and the latest update doesn't include definitions for 
them, you can go to the FortiGuard website and submit a request to have the new applications added. You 
can also submit a request to re-evaluate an application category, if you believe an application should belong 
to a different category. 
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Many web applications offer functionality that can be embedded in third-party websites or applications. For 
example, you can embed a Facebook Like button at the end of an article or reference a YouTube video on an 
educational website. FortiOS gives administrators all the tools they need to inspect sub-application traffic. The 
FortiGuard application control signature databaseis organized in a hierarchical structure. This gives you the 
ability to inspect the traffic with more granularity. You can block Facebook apps while allowing users to 
collaborate using Facebook chat. 
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Good job! You now understand basic application control functionality. 
Now, you will learn about application control configuration.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in configuring the application control operation modes that are available on 
FortiOS, you will be able to use application control effectively in both profile mode and NGFW policy mode.
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When FortiGate or a VDOM is operating in flow-based (NGFW mode set to profile-based, policy set to flow-
based) inspection mode or policy set to proxy-based inspection mode, to configure application control, 
administrators must create an application control profile and apply that profile to a firewall policy. 
It is important to note that the application control profile uses flow-based scanning techniques, regardless of 
which inspection mode is used on the policy. 
The application control profile consists of three different types of filters:
• Categories: Groups applications based on similarity. For example, all applications that are capable of 
providing remote access are grouped in the Remote Access category. You can view the signatures of all 
applications in a category or apply an action to a category as a whole.
• Application overrides: Provides the flexibility to control specific signatures and applications.
• Filter overrides: Useful when a predefined category does not meet your requirements and you want to 
block all applications based on criteria that is not available in categories. You can configure the 
categorization of applications based on behavior, popularity, protocol, risk, vendor, or the technology used 
by the applications, and take action based on that.
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The application control profile is configured on the Application Control page. You can configure actions 
based on categories, application overrides, and filter overrides. You can also view the list of application 
control signatures by clicking View Application Signatures. 
At the top of the Application Control profile page, you will see a summary of how many cloud applications 
require deep inspection. Cloud applications that use SSL encryption cannot be scanned without a deep 
inspection profile. FortiGate must decrypt the traffic in order to perform inspection and control application 
traffic. 
The Unknown Applications setting matches traffic that can’t be matched to any application control signature 
and identifies the traffic as unknown application in the logs. Factors that contribute to traffic being 
identified as unknown application include:
• How many rare applications your users are using
• Which IPS database version you are using
Identifying traffic as unknown can cause frequent log entries. Frequent log entries decrease performance.
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The number listed to the right of the cloud symbol indicates the number of cloud applications within a specified 
category.
If you need to enable Allow and Log DNS Traffic, you should enable it only for short periods, such as during 
an investigation. Depending on the application and how often it queries DNS servers, enabling this setting can 
use significant system resources. 
QUIC is a protocol from Google. Instead of using the standard TCP connections for web access, QUIC uses 
UDP, which is not scanned by web filtering. Allowing QUIC instructs FortiGate to inspect Google Chrome 
packets for a QUIC header, and generate logs as a QUIC message. Blocking QUIC forces Google Chrome to 
use HTTP2/TLS1.2 and FortiGate to log QUIC as blocked. The default action for QUIC is Block.
The Replacement Messages for HTTP-based Applications setting allows you to replace blocked content 
with an explanation (for the user’s benefit). However, for non-HTTP/HTTPS applications, you can only drop 
the packets or reset the TCP connection. 
After you’ve configured the application control profile, select the profile in the firewall policy. Like any other 
security profile, the settings you configure in the application control profile are not applied globally. FortiGate 
applies the application control profile settings only to traffic governed by the firewall policy in which you’ve 
selected the application control profile. This allows granular control.
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Protocol enforcement is added to the application control profile, allowing the administrator to configure 
network services (for example, FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS) on known ports (for example, 21, 80, and 443), while 
blocking those services on other ports.
The feature takes action in the following scenarios:
• When one protocol dissector confirms the service of network traffic, protocol enforcement can check 
whether the confirmed service is whitelisted under the server port. If it is not, then the traffic is considered a 
violation and IPS can take the action (for example, block) specified in the configuration.
• There is no confirmed service for network traffic. It would be considered a service violation if IPS dissectors 
rule out all the services enforced under its server port.
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The IPS engine examines the traffic stream for a signature match. 
Then, FortiGate scans packets for matches, in this order, for the application control profile:
1. Application and filter overrides: If you have configured any application overrides or filter overrides, the 
application control profile considers those first. It looks for a matching override starting at the top of the 
list, like firewall policies.
2. Categories: Finally, the application control profile applies the action that you’ve configured for applications 
in your selected categories.
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In the example profile shown on this slide, the application control profile blocks the Game and Video/Audio 
categories. For applications in these categories, FortiGate responds with the application control HTTP block 
message. (It is slightly different from the web filtering HTTP block message.) All other categories are set to 
Monitor, except Unknown Applications, and are allowed to pass traffic.
In the Application and Filter Overrides section, you can see that some exceptions are specified. Instead of 
being set to Block, Battle.Net (Game) and Dailymotion (Video/Audio) are set to Monitor. Because 
application overrides are applied first in the scan, these two applications are allowed, and generate logs.
Next, the scan checks for Application and Filter Overrides. Because a filter override is configured to block 
applications that use excessive bandwidth, it blocks all applications using excessive bandwidth, regardless of 
categories that allow these applications.
This slide shows an example of how several security profile features could work together, overlap, or work as 
substitutes, on the same traffic.
After the application control profile scan is done, FortiGate begins other scans, such as web filtering. The web 
filtering scan could block Battle.Net and Dailymotion, but it would use its own block message. Also, web 
filteringdoesn’t check the list of application control overrides. So, even if an application control override allows 
an application, web filtering could still block it. 
Similarly, static URL filtering has its own exempt action, which bypasses all subsequent security checks. 
However, application control occurs before web filtering, so that the web filtering exemption cannot bypass 
application control.
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In the example profile shown on this slide, the filter override has been moved above the application override. 
In this scenario, the filter override (Excessive-Bandwidth) is blocked and, since Dailymotion falls under the 
excessive bandwidth category, Dailymotion is blocked even though it is set to Monitor under the Application 
and Filter Overrides section.
The priority in which application and filter overrides are placed takes precedence.
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For each filter in the application control profile, you must indicate an action—what FortiGate does when traffic 
matches. Actions include the following:
• Allow: Passes the traffic and does not generate a log
• Monitor: Passes the traffic, but also generates a log message
• Block: Drops the detected traffic and generates a log message
• Quarantine: Blocks the traffic from an attacker IP until the expiration time is reached and generates a log 
message
The View Signature action allows you to view signatures from a particular category only and is not a 
configurable action. The View Cloud Signatures action allows you to view application signatures for cloud 
applications from a particular category. 
Which is the correct action to choose?
If you’re not sure which action to choose, Monitor can be useful initially, while you study your network. Later,
after you have studied your network traffic, you can fine-tune your filter selection by choosing the most 
appropriate action. The action you choose also depends on the application. If an application requires feedback 
to prevent instability or other unwanted behavior, then you might choose Quarantine instead of Block. 
Otherwise, the most efficient use of FortiGate resources is to block.
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After you configure an application control profile, you must apply it to a firewall policy. This instructs FortiGate 
to start scanning application traffic that is subject to the firewall policy. 
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For HTTP-based applications, application control can provide feedback to the user about why their application 
was blocked. This is called a block page, and it is similar to the one you can configure for URLs that you block 
using FortiGuard web filtering.
It is also worth mentioning that, if deep inspection is enabled in the firewall policy, all HTTPS-based 
applications provide this block page.
The block page contains the following information:
• Signature that detected the application (in this case, Dailymotion)
• Signature’s category (Video/Audio)
• URL that was specifically blocked (in this case, the index page of www.dailymotion.com), since a web 
page can be assembled from multiple URLs
• User name (if authentication is enabled)
• Group name (if authentication is enabled)
• UUID of the policy governing the traffic
The last item in this list can help you to identify which policy on FortiGate blocked the page, even if you have a 
large number of policies with many FortiGate devices securing different segments.
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When FortiGate is operating in NGFW policy-based mode, administrators can apply application control to a 
security policy directly, instead of having to create an application control profile first, and then apply that to a 
firewall policy. Eliminating the need to use an application control profile makes it easier for the administrator to 
select the applications or application categories they want to allow or deny in the firewall policy.
It is important to note that all security policies in an NGFW policy-based mode VDOM or FortiGate must 
specify an SSL/SSH inspection profile on a consolidated policy. NGFW policy-based mode also requires the 
use of central source NAT (SNAT), instead of NAT settings applied within the firewall policy.
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You can select one or more applications, application groups, and application categories on a security policy in 
the Application section. After you click the + icon for an application, a pop-up window opens. In that window, 
you can search for and select one or more application signatures, application groups, or application 
categories. Based on the applications, groups, and application categories applied to the policy, FortiOS
applies the security action to the application traffic.
You can configure the URL Category within the same security policy; however, adding a URL filter causes 
application control to scan applications in only the browser-based technology category, for example, 
Facebook Messenger on the Facebook website. 
You can also configure the Group with multiple applications and application categories. This allows the 
administrator to mix multiple applications and categories.
In addition to applying a URL category filter, you can also apply AntiVirus and IPS security profiles to 
application traffic that is allowed to pass through.
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FortiOS uses a three-step process to perform NGFW policy-based application filtering. Here is a brief 
overview of what happens at each step.
In step 1, FortiOS allows all traffic while forwarding packets to the IPS engine for inspection and identification 
of the traffic. At the same time, FortiOS creates an entry in the session table allowing the traffic to pass and it 
adds a may_dirty flag to it. 
In step 2, as soon as the IPS engine identifies the application, it updates the session entry with the following 
information: dirty flag, app_valid flag, and an application ID. 
In step 3, the FortiOS kernel performs a security policy lookup again, to see if the identified application ID is 
listed in any of the existing security policies. This time the kernel uses both Layer 4 and Layer 7 information 
for policy matching. After the criteria matches a firewall policy rule, the FortiOS kernel applies the action 
configured on the security policy to the application traffic. 
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Configuring application control in NGFW policy-based mode is simple. You can create a new security policy or 
edit an existing security policy. In the Application section, select the applications, categories, or groups that 
you want to allow or deny, and change the security policy Action accordingly. On applications that you 
selected to allow, you can further enhance network security by enabling antivirus scanning and IPS control. 
You can also enable the logging of Security Events or All Sessions to ensure that all application control 
events are logged. 
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You must have a matching central SNAT policy in NGFW policy-based mode to be able to pass traffic. NAT is 
applied on the traffic based on criteria defined in the central SNAT policy. 
It is extremely important to arrange security policies so that the more specific policies are located at the top to 
ensure proper use of application control. 
A default SSL Inspection & Authentication policy is defined to inspect traffic accepted by any of the security 
firewalls, andby using the certificate-inspection SSL inspection profile.
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NGFW policy matching works using a top-to-bottom approach. You must have a specific policy above a more 
broad or open policy. For example, if you would like to block Facebook but allow the Social.Media category, 
you must place the policy blocking Facebook traffic above the policy allowing the Social.Media category. 
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If an application is necessary, but you must prevent it from impacting bandwidth then, instead of blocking it 
entirely, you can apply a rate limit to the application. For example, you can rate limit applications used for 
storage or backup leaving enough bandwidth for more sensitive streaming applications, such as video 
conferencing.
Applying traffic shaping to applications is very useful when you’re trying to limit traffic that uses the same TCP 
or UDP port numbers as mission-critical applications. Some high-traffic web sites, such as YouTube, can be 
throttled in this way.
Examine the details of how throttling works. Not all URL requests to www.youtube.com are for video. Your 
browser makes several HTTPS requests for:
• The web page itself
• Images
• Scripts and style sheets
• Video
All of these items have separate URLs. If you analyze a site like YouTube, the web pages themselves don’t 
use much bandwidth; it is the video content that uses the most bandwidth. But, since all content is transported 
using the same protocol (HTTPS), and the URLs contain dynamically generated alphanumeric strings, 
traditional firewall policies can't block or throttle the traffic by port number or protocol because they are the 
same. Using application control, you can rate limit only videos. Doing this prevents users from saturating your 
network bandwidth, while still allowing them to access the other content on the site, such as for comments or 
sharing links.
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You can limit the bandwidth of an application category, application group, or specific application by configuring 
a traffic shaping policy. You can also apply traffic shaping to FortiGuard web filter categories and to the 
application group.
You must ensure that the matching criteria aligns with the firewall policy or policies to which you want to apply 
shaping. It does not have to match outright. For example, if the source in the firewall policy is set to all
(0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0), you can set the source in the traffic shaping policy to any source that is included in all, 
for example, LOCAL_SUBNET (10.0.1.0/24).
If the traffic shaping policy is not visible in the GUI, you can enable it on the Feature Visibility page.
There are two types of shapers that you can configure on the Traffic Shaping Policy page, and you can 
apply them in the traffic shaping policy:
• Shared shaper: applies a total bandwidth to all traffic using that shaper. The scope can be per policy or for 
all policies referencing that shaper.
• Per-IP shaper: applies traffic shaping to all source IP addresses in the security policy. Bandwidth is 
equally divided among the group.
Note that the outgoing interface is usually the egress interface (WAN). The Shared shaper setting is applied 
to ingress-to-egress traffic, which is useful for restricting bandwidth for uploading. The Reverse Shaper 
setting is also a shared shaper, but it is applied to traffic in the reverse direction (egress-to-ingress traffic). 
This is useful for restricting bandwidth for downloading or streaming, because it limits the bandwidth from the 
external interface to the internal interface.
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Good job! You now understand application control configuration.
Now, you will learn about logging and monitoring application control events. 
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in application control configuration, including reviewing application control logs, 
you will be able to effectively use and monitor application control events.
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Regardless of which operation mode application control is configured in, you must enable logging on the 
security or firewall policy. When you enable the logging of security events or all sessions on a security or 
firewall policy, application control events are also logged. You must apply application control to the security or 
firewall policy to enable application control event logging. 
When the Deny action is selected on a security or firewall policy, you must enable the Log Violations option 
to generate application control events for blocked traffic.
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All application control events are logged on the Application Control pane on the Log & Report page. You 
can view details about individual logs by clicking on the log entry. 
In the example shown on this slide, access to Dailymotion is blocked using the default application control 
profile. This information is available in the Log Details section, as well as information about the log source, 
destination, application, and action. 
Note that this log message was generated by application control using a profile-based configuration. In an 
NGFW policy-based configuration, you will not find information such as application sensor name, because it 
does not apply. The remainder of the information and structure of the log message is the same for each log, 
regardless of which inspection mode FortiGate is operating in. 
You can also view the details on the Forward Traffic logs pane. This pane is where firewall policies record 
activity. You can also find a summary of the traffic to which FortiGate applied application control. Again, this is 
because application control is applied by a firewall policy. To find out which policy applied application control, 
you can review either the Policy ID or the Policy UUID fields of the log message.
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On the Dashboard menu, the Top Applications standalone page provides details about each application, 
such as the application name, category, and bandwidth. You can drill down further to see more granular 
details by double-clicking an individual log entry. The detailed view provides information about the source, 
destination, policies, or sessions for the selected application.
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Good job! You now understand application control logging and monitoring.
Now, you will learn about application control best practices and troubleshooting.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in application control best practices and troubleshooting, you will be able to 
configure and maintain an effective application control solution. 
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This slide lists some best practices to keep in mind when implementing application control on FortiGate. 
Not all traffic requires an application control scan. Don’t apply application control to internal-only traffic. 
To minimize resource use onFortiGate, be as specific as possible when creating firewall policies. This 
reduces resource use, and also helps you build a more secure firewall configuration.
Create identical firewall policies for all redundant internet connections, to ensure that the same inspection is 
performed on failover traffic. Select Deep-Inspection instead of Certificate-based inspection for the 
SSL/SSH inspection mode, to ensure content inspection is performed on encryption protocols. 
FortiGate models that feature specialized chips, such as network processors and content processors, can
offload and accelerate application signature matching for enhanced performance.
You can use a FortiCloud account to save and view application control logs in FortiView, on FortiGate devices 
that do not have a log disk. 
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If you are experiencing issues with a FortiGuard application control update, start troubleshooting the issue 
with the most basic steps:
• Make sure that FortiGate has a stable connection to the internet or FortiManager (if FortiGate is configured 
to receive updates from FortiManager)
• If the internet connection is stable, check DNS resolution on FortiGate
• If FortiGate is installed behind a network firewall, make sure that port443 is being allowed from FortiGate
You can check the FortiGuard website for the latest version of the application control database. If your locally 
installed database is out-of-date, try forcing FortiGate to check for the latest updates by running the execute 
update-now command.
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Application Control
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson. 
Now, you’ll review the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to use methods beyond simply blocking 
protocols, port numbers, or IP addresses, to monitor and control both standard and non-standard network 
applications.
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In this lesson, you will learn how to use FortiGate to protect your network against viruses.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in antivirus basics, you will be able to understand and apply antivirus on 
FortiGate.
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An antivirus is a database of virus signatures that is used to identify infections. During an antivirus scan, in 
order to be detected as a virus, the virus must match a defined pattern called a signature.
Different vendors assign different names to the same virus. All vendors use the attack vector designation in 
the virus name. The vector comes at the beginning of the virus name. Some examples include:
• W32, which represents 32-bit Windows
• W64, which represents 64-bit Windows
• JS, which represents JavaScript (which is cross-platform)
Some vendors also use a pattern as part of the virus name. Some patterns detect only one virus per pattern. 
Other patterns are more flexible and can detect multiple viruses per pattern. The pattern that the vendor uses 
depends on the vendor’s engine.
Host-based antivirus software, such as FortiClient, can help at the host level; however, host-based antivirus 
software cannot be installed on routers. Also, guest Wi-Fi networks and ISP customers might not have 
antivirus software installed. 
So, how can you protect guest networks, ISP customers, and your own network from malware threats?
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Like viruses, which use many methods to avoid detection, FortiGate uses many techniques to detect viruses. 
These detection techniques include:
• Antivirus scan: This is the first, fastest, simplest way to detect malware. It detects viruses that are an exact 
match for a signature in the antivirus database.
• Grayware scan: This scan detects unsolicited programs, known as grayware, that have been installed 
without the user’s knowledge or consent. Grayware is not technically a virus. It is often bundled with 
innocuous software, but does have unwanted side effects, so it is categorized as malware. Often, grayware 
can be detected with a simple FortiGuard grayware signature.
• Machine learning (AI) scan: These scans are based on probability, so they increase the possibility of false 
positives, but they also detect zero-day attacks. Zero-day attacks are malwares that are new, unknown, 
and, therefore, have no existing associated signature. If your network is a frequent target, enabling an AI 
scan may be worth the performance cost because it can help you to detect a virus before the outbreak 
begins. By default, when the AI engine detects a new virus, it logs the file as Suspicious but does not 
block it. You can choose whether to block or allow suspicious files. 
The AI scan is an optional feature that must be enabled in the CLI. You can configure the action for the AI
scan to enable, monitor, or disable using the CLI command in the antivirus settings.
If all antivirus features are enabled, FortiGate applies the following scanning order: antivirus scan, followed by 
grayware scan, followed by AI scan.
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What if AI scans are too uncertain? What if you need a more sophisticated, more certain way to detect 
malware and find zero-day viruses?
You can integrate your antivirus scans with either FortiSandbox Cloud or a FortiSandbox appliance. Note you 
will need to enable cloud sandboxing on the CLI under system global settings for configuration options to 
appear on GUI . For environments that require more certainty, FortiSandbox executes the file within a 
protected environment (VMs), then examines the effects of the software to see if it is dangerous. 
For example, let’s say you have two files. Both alter the system registry and are, therefore, suspicious. One is 
a driver installation—its behavior is normal—but the second file installs a virus that connects to a botnet 
command and control server. Sandboxing would reveal the difference.
FortiGate can be configured to receive a supplementary signature database from FortiSandbox based on the 
sandboxed results.
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FortiOS is smart when it comes to determining what files are sent to FortiSandbox. One feature FortiOS uses 
for this is content disarm and reconstruction (CDR), a proxy-based feature that you will learn more about later. 
When CDR processes files, the original documents can be saved to FortiSandbox.
FortiGuard provides FortiGate with information based on the current threat climate that is used to determine if 
a file should be deemed suspicious or not. FortiGate provides the administrator with granular control when it 
comes to determining what type of files are sent to FortiSandbox for further investigation. Administrators also 
have the option to use the FortiSandbox database in conjunction with the FortiGuard antivirus database to 
enhance their network security.
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Scheduled updates allow you to configure scheduled updates at regular intervals, such as hourly, daily, 
weekly, or automatically within everyhour. You can also enable AntiVirus PUP/PUA, which allows antivirus
grayware checks for potentially unwanted programs and applications.
Regardless of which method you select, you must enable virus scanning in at least one firewall policy. 
Otherwise, FortiGate will not download any updates. Alternatively, you can download packages from the 
Fortinet customer service and support website (requires subscription), and then manually upload them to your 
FortiGate. You can verify the update status and signature versions from the FortiGuard page on the GUI or 
using the CLI console.
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Multiple FortiGuard antivirus databases exist, which you can configure using CLI commands. Support for each 
database type varies by FortiGate model.
All FortiGate devices include the extended database. The extended database contains signatures for viruses
that have been detected in recent months, as identified by the FortiGuard Global Security Research Team. 
The extended database also detects viruses that are no longer active. 
The extreme database is intended for use in high-security environments. The extreme database detects all 
known viruses, including viruses targeted at legacy operating systems that are no longer widely used. Most 
FortiGate models support the extreme database.
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Content disarm and reconstruction (CDR): The CDR removes exploitable content and replaces it with content 
that's known to be safe. As files are processed through an enabled antivirus profile, content that's found to be 
malicious or unsafe is replaced with content that allows the traffic to continue, but doesn't put the recipient at 
risk. Content that can be scanned includes PDF and Microsoft Office files leaving the network on CDR-
supported protocols (such as HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, and POP3—MAPI isn't supported). When the client tries to 
download the file, FortiGate removes all exploitable content in real-time, then the original file is sent to 
FortiSandbox for inspection. The client can download the original file by logging in to the FortiSandbox.
Virus outbreak prevention: An additional layer of protection that keeps your network safe from newly emerging 
malware. Quick virus outbreaks can infect a network before signatures can be developed to stop them. 
Outbreak protection stops these virus outbreaks until signatures become available in FortiGuard. FortiGate 
must have a zero-hour virus Outbreak (ZHVO) license. FortiGate adds hash-based virus detection for new 
threats that are not yet detected by the antivirus signatures. When the file is sent to the scanunit deamon, 
buffers are hashed and a request is sent to the urlfilter deamon. After checking against its request cache for 
known signatures, the urlfilter deamon sends an antivirus request to FortiGuard with the remaining signatures. 
FortiGuard returns a rating that is used to determine if the scanunit deamon should report the file as harmful 
or not. Jobs remain suspended in the scanunit deamon until the client receives a response, or the request 
times out.
Malware block list: FortiGate can enhance the antivirus database by linking a dynamic external malware block 
list to FortiGate. The list is hosted on a web server and is available through HTTP/HTTPS URL defined within 
the Security Fabric malware hash list. The list can be in the forms of MD5, SHA1, and SHA256 hashes, and 
are written on separate lines on a plaintext file. The malware block list can be defined as a Security Fabric 
connector and configured to pull the list dynamically by setting the refresh rate.
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Good job! You now understand the basics of antivirus functionality. 
Now, you will learn about antivirus scanning modes.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in all antivirus scanning modes available in FortiOS, you will be able to use the 
antivirus profile in an effective manner.
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AV can operate in flow-based or proxy-based inspection mode, both of which use the full AV database 
(extended or extreme–depending on the CLI settings).
Flow-based inspection mode uses a hybrid of the scanning modes available in proxy-based inspection: the 
default scanning mode and the legacy scanning mode. The default mode enhances the scanning of nested 
archive files without buffering the container archive file. The legacy mode buffers the full container, and then 
scans it.
In flow-based inspection mode, the IPS engine reads the payload of each packet, caches a local copy, and 
forwards the packet to the receiver at the same time. Because the file is transmitted simultaneously, flow-
based mode consumes more CPU cycles than proxy-based. However, depending on the FortiGate model, 
some operations can be offloaded to SPUs to improve performance. When FortiGate receives the last packet 
of the file, it puts the packet on hold and sends a copy to the IPS engine. The IPS engine extracts the payload 
and assembles the whole file, and then sends the whole file to the AV engine for scanning.
Two possible scenarios can occur when a virus is detected:
• When a virus is detected on a TCP session where some packets have been already forwarded to the 
receiver, FortiGate resets the connection and does not send the last piece of the file. Although the receiver 
got most of the file content, the file has been truncated and therefore, can’t be opened. The IPS engine 
also caches the URL of the infected file, so that if a second attempt to transmit the file is made, the IPS 
engine will then send a block replacement message to the client instead of scanning the file again.
• If the virus is detected at the start of the connection, the IPS engine sends the block replacement message 
immediately.
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This slide shows an example of the antiVirus profile operating in flow-based inspection mode. By default, 
Feature set is set to Flow-based.
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As you can see on this slide, the client sends a request and starts receiving packets immediately, but 
FortiGate also caches those packets at the same time. When the last packet arrives, FortiGate caches it and 
puts it on hold. Then, the IPS engine extracts the payload of the last packet, assembles the whole file, and 
sends it to the antivirus engine for scanning. If the antivirus scan does not detect any viruses, and the result 
comes back clean, the last cached packet is regenerated and delivered to the client. However, if a virus is 
found, the last packet is dropped. Even if the client has received most of the file, the file will be truncated and 
the client will be not able to open a truncated file.
Regardless of which mode you use, the scan techniques give similar detection rates. How can you choose 
between the scan engines? If performance is your top priority, then flow inspection mode is more appropriate. 
If security is your priority, proxy inspection mode—with client comforting disabled—is more appropriate.
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Each protocol’s proxy picks up a connection and buffers the entire file first (or waits until the oversize limit is 
reached) before scanning. The client must wait for the scanning to finish. If a virus is detected, the block 
replacement page is displayed immediately. Because FortiGate has to buffer the whole file and then do the 
scanning,it takes a long time to scan. Also, from the client point of view, it has to wait for the scanning to 
finish and might terminate the connection due to lack of data.
You can configure client comforting for HTTP and FTP from the config firewall profile-protocol-
options command tree. This allows the proxy to slowly transmit some data until it can complete the buffer 
and finish the scan. This prevents a connection or session timeout. No block replacement message appears
in the first attempt, as FortiGate is transmitting the packets to the end client.
Using proxy inspection antivirus allow you to use the stream-based scanning, which is enabled by default. 
Stream-based scanning scans large archive files by decompressing the files and then scanning and extracting 
them at the same time. This process optimized memory utilization to conserve resources on FortiGate. 
Viruses are detected even if they are in the middle or towards the end of these large files.
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With a proxy inspection mode scan, the client sends a request and FortiGate starts buffering the whole file, 
then sends it to the antivirus engine for scanning. If the file is clean (without any viruses), FortiGate starts 
transmitting the file to the end client. If a virus is found, no packets are delivered to the end client and the 
proxy sends the replacement block message to the end client.
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Applying a proxy-based antivirus profile requires two sections in FortiGate configuration to use non-default 
settings:
1. Antivirus profile
2. Firewall policy
Antivirus profile provides the option to select a proxy-based approach as the inspection mode within the 
profile. This allows the profile to inspect MAPI and SSH protocols traffic, as well as to sanitize Microsoft 
documents and PDF files using the content disarm and reconstruction (CDR) feature.
If the inspection mode on the antivirus profile is set to Proxy-based, it is only available when the firewall 
policy inspection mode is set to Proxy-based.
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This slide provides comparison of the different antivirus scanning modes. 
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Good job! You now understand antivirus scanning modes. 
Now, you will learn about antivirus configuration.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in antivirus configuration, including reviewing antivirus logs, you will be able to 
use the antivirus profile in an effective manner.
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The antivirus profile can be configured on the AntiVirus page. Since the default inspection mode on a firewall 
policy is flow-based, Feature set is required to be set to Flow-based. If the inspection mode of the firewall 
policy is proxy-based, Feature set can be set to Proxy-based, which allows specific functions that are only 
available using proxy-based inspection mode firewall policy such as MAPI protocol and CDR.
Both feature sets provide the following options:
APT Protection Options: 
• Treat Windows executables in email attachment as viruses: By default, this option is enabled and files 
(including compressed files) identified as Windows executables can be treated as viruses.
• Send files to FortiSandbox for inspection: If FortiSandbox cloud or appliance is configured, you can 
configure the antivirus profile to send malicious files to FortiSandbox for behaviour analysis. If tagged as 
malicious, any future files matching the same behavior will be blocked if Use FortiSandbox database is 
enabled.
Virus Outbreak Prevention:
• Use FortiGuard Virus outbreak prevention database: FortiGuard virus outbreak prevention is an 
additional layer of protection that keeps your network safe from newly emerging malware. Quick virus 
outbreaks can infect a network before signatures can be developed to stop them. Outbreak protection 
stops these virus outbreaks until signatures become available on FortiGuard.
• Use external malware block List: FortiGate can enhance the antivirus database by linking a dynamic 
external malware block list to FortiGate. Malware block list can be defined as a Security Fabric connector 
and configured to pull the list dynamically by setting the refresh rate.
In the antivirus profile, you can define what FortiGate should do if it detects an infected file. After you configure 
an antivirus profile, you must apply it in the firewall policy.
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Protocol options provide more granular control than antivirus profiles. You can configure protocol port 
mappings, common options, web options, and email options, to name a few. 
You can configure protocol options on the Protocol Options page on the GUI or from the CLI. Protocol 
options are used by antivirus and other security profiles, such as web filtering, DNS filtering, and data loss 
prevention (DLP), to name a few.
Once protocol options are configured, they are applied in the firewall policy.
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So what is the recommended buffer limit? It varies by model and configuration. You can adjust the 
oversize-limit for your network for optimal performance. A smaller buffer minimizes proxy latency (for 
both scanning modes) and RAM usage, but that may allow viruses to pass through undetected. When a buffer 
is too large, clients may notice transmission timeouts. You need to balance the two.
If you aren’t sure about the value to set oversize-limit to, you can temporarily enable oversize-log to 
see if your FortiGate is scanning large files frequently. You can then adjust the value accordingly.
Files that are bigger than the oversize limit are bypassed from scanning. You can enable logging of oversize 
files by enabling the oversize-log option from the CLI. 
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Large files are often compressed. When compressed files go through scanning, the compression acts like 
encryption: the signatures won't match. So, FortiGate must decompress the file in order to scan it. 
Before decompressing a file, FortiGate must first identify the compression algorithm. Some archive types can 
be correctly identified using only the header. Also, FortiGate must check whether the file is password
protected. If the archive is protected with a password, FortiGate can’t decompress it, and, therefore, can’t 
scan it.
FortiGate decompresses files into RAM. Just like other large files, the RAM buffer has a maximum size. 
Increasing this limit may decrease performance, but it allows you to scan larger compressed files.
If an archive is nested—for example, if an attacker is trying to circumvent your scans by putting a ZIP file 
inside the ZIP file—FortiGate will try to undo all layers of compression. By default, FortiGate will attempt to 
decompress and scan up to 12 layers deep, but you can configure it to scan up to the maximum number 
supported by your device (usually 100). Often, you shouldn’t increase this setting because it increases RAM 
usage.
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An antivirus profile in full scan mode buffers up to your specified file size limit. The default is 10 MB. That is 
large enough for most files, except video files. If your FortiGate model has more RAM, you may be able to 
increase this threshold.
Without a limit, very large files could exhaust the scan memory. So, thisthreshold balances risk and 
performance. Is this tradeoff unique to FortiGate, or to a specific model? No. Regardless of vendor or model, 
you must make a choice. This is because of the difference between scans in theory, that have no limits, and 
scans on real-world devices, that have finite RAM. In order to detect 100% of malware regardless of file size, 
a firewall would need infinitely large RAM—something that no device has in the real world.
Most viruses are very small. This table shows a typical tradeoff. You can see that with the default 10 MB 
threshold, only 0.01% of viruses pass through. 
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Before FortiGate devices can start scanning traffic for malware, you need to apply the antivirus profile, the 
protocol options, and SSL/SSH inspection profiles on the firewall policy. 
In full SSL inspection level, FortiGate terminates the SSL/TLS handshake at its own interface, before it 
reaches the server. When certificates and private keys are exchanged, it is with FortiGate and not the server. 
Next, FortiGate starts a second connection with the server. 
Because traffic is unencrypted while passing between its interfaces, FortiGate can inspect the contents and 
look for matches with the antivirus signature database, before it re-encrypts the packet and forwards it. 
For these reasons, full SSL inspection level is the only choice that allows antivirus to be effective. 
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For antivirus scanning in proxy-based inspection mode (with client comforting disabled), the block 
replacement page is displayed immediately when a virus is detected.
For flow-based inspection mode scanning, if a virus is detected at the start of the stream, the block 
replacement page is displayed at the first attempt. If a virus is detected after a few packets have been 
transmitted, the block replacement page is not displayed. However, FortiGate caches the URL and can 
display the replacement page immediately, on the second attempt.
Note that if deep inspection is enabled, all HTTPS-based applications also display the block replacement 
message.
The block page includes the following:
• File name
• Virus name
• Website host and URL
• User name and group (if authentication is enabled)
• Link to FortiGuard Encyclopedia—which provides analysis, recommended actions (if any), and detection 
availability
You can go directly to the FortiGuard website to view information about other malware, and scan, submit, or 
do both, with a sample of a suspected malware.
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You can find virus scanning statistics on the Advanced Threat Protection Statistics widget on the 
dashboard.
If your FortiGate is submitting files for sandboxing, it keeps statistics about the number of files submitted and 
the results of those scans. These statistics are separate from files that are scanned locally on FortiGate.
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If you enable logging, you can find details on the AntiVirus log page.
When the antivirus scan detects a virus, by default, it creates a log about what virus was detected, as well as 
the action, policy ID, antivirus profile name, and detection type. It also provides a link to more information on 
the FortiGuard website.
You can also view log details on the Forward Traffic log page, where firewall policies record traffic activity. 
You’ll also find a summary of the traffic on which FortiGate applied an antivirus action.
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Good job! You now understand antivirus configuration.
Now, you will learn about some antivirus best practices. 
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in antivirus best practices, you will be able to configure an effective antivirus 
solution.
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The following are some best practices to follow when configuring antivirus scanning for use on FortiOS:
• Enable antivirus scanning on all internet traffic. This includes internal to external firewall policies, and any 
VIP firewall policies. 
• Use deep-inspection instead of certificate-based inspection, to ensure that full content inspection is 
performed.
• Use FortiSandbox for protection against new viruses. 
• Do not increase the maximum file size to be scanned, unless there is good reason, or you need to do so in 
order to meet a network requirement. 
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Logging is an important part of managing a secure network. Enable logging for oversized files so that if there 
are files that are not scanned, you can be aware of it. Also, ensure that security events logging is enabled on 
all firewall policies using security profiles. Use the standalone dashboards to view relevant information 
regarding threats to your network. The standalone dashboard organizes information into network segments 
and breaks it down into various categories. 
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The FortiGate main CPU is responsible for performing UTM/NGFW inspection on the network traffic. 
FortiGate models that have specialized chips can offload inspection tasks to enhance performance while 
providing the same level of protection. FortiGate devices that support the NTurbo feature can offload 
UTM/NGFW sessions to network processors. NTurbo creates a special data path to redirect traffic from the 
ingress interface to the IPS engine, and from the IPS engine to the egress interface. This can improve 
performance by accelerating antivirus inspection, without sacrificing security.
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FortiGate models that have CP8 or CP9 content processors can offload flow-based pattern matching to CP8 
or CP9 processors. When CP acceleration is enabled, flow-based pattern databases are compiled and 
downloaded to the content processors from the IPS engine and IPS database. This reduces load on the 
FortiGate CPU because flow-based pattern matching requests are redirected to the CP hardware. Before 
flow-based inspection is applied to the traffic, the IPS engine uses a series of decoders to determine the 
appropriate security modules that can be used, depending on the protocol of the packet and policy settings. In 
addition, if SSL inspection is configured, the IPS engine also decrypts SSL packets. SSL decryption is also 
offloaded and accelerated by CP8 or CP9 processors.
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Good job! You now understand antivirus best practices. 
Now, you will learn about antivirus troubleshooting. 
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After completing this section, you should be able to troubleshoot common issues with antivirus.
By demonstrating competence in troubleshooting common antivirus issues, you will be able to configure and 
maintain an effective antivirus solution.
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What if FortiGate shows a valid license but the antivirus database is out-of-date? 
Check the current database version installed on your FortiGate and compare the version number with the 
current release on the FortiGuard website. FortiGate may not update the antivirus database if it is not being 
used (applied on a firewall policy).Make sure the antivirus profile is applied on at least one firewall policy. If 
you continue to see issues with the update, run the real-time debug command to identify the problem.
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If you are having issues with the antivirus license or FortiGuard updates, start troubleshooting with basic 
connectivity tests. Most of the time, issues related to updates are caused by connectivity problems with 
FortiGuard servers. You can perform the following to handle common antivirus issues:
• Make sure that FortiGate has a stable internet connection and can resolve DNS 
(update.fortinet.net). 
• If there is another firewall between FortiGate and the internet, make sure TCP port 443 is open and traffic 
is allowed from and to the FortiGate device. 
• Force FortiGate to check for new virus updates using the CLI command: execute update-av. 
• Verify that the FortiGate device is registered and has a valid antivirus service contract. 
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What if you have a valid contract and updated database, and you are still having issues catching viruses? 
Start troubleshooting for basic configuration errors. Most of the time, issues are caused by misconfiguration 
on the device. You can verify them as following:
• Make sure that the correct antivirus profile is applied on the right firewall policy. 
• Make sure that you are using the same antivirus profile and SSL/SSH inspection on all internet connection 
firewall policies. 
• Add and use advanced the threat protection statistics widget to get the latest virus statistics from the unit. 
These are some of the commands that can be used to retrieve information and troubleshoot antivirus issues:
• get system performance status: Displays statistics for the last one minute.
• diagnose antivirus database-info: Displays current antivirus database information.
• diagnose autoupdate versions: Displays current antivirus engine and signature versions.
• diagnose antivirus test "get scantime": Displays scan times for infected files.
• execute update-av: Forces FortiGate to check for antivirus updates from the FortiGuard server.
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Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.
Now, you will review the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
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This slide shows the objectives that you covered in this lesson.
By mastering the objectives covered in this lesson, you learned how to use FortiGate features and functions to 
protect your network against viruses.
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In this lesson, you will learn how to use FortiGate to protect your network against intrusions and denial of 
service (DoS) attacks.
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In this lesson, you will learn about the topics shown on this slide.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in intrusion prevention system (IPS), you should be able to implement an 
effective IPS solution to protect your network from intrusion.
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Organizations are under continuous attacks. Cybercriminals, motivated by previously successful high-profile 
hacks and a highly profitable black market for stolen data, continue to increase both the volume and 
sophistication of their attacks on organizations. Many organizations encourage BYOD and flexible working 
environments, which has led to the explosion of anytime, anywhere data consumption. This consumption 
increases the risk that sensitive data will be exposed to unauthorized access outside corporate boundaries. 
Today’s threat landscape requires IPS to block a wider range of threats, while minimizing false positives.
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It’s important to understand the difference between an anomaly and an exploit. It’s also important to know 
which FortiGate features offer protection against each of these types of threats.
Exploits are known attacks, with known patterns that can be matched by IPS, web application firewall (WAF), 
or antivirus signatures.
Anomalies are unusual behaviors in the network, such as higher-than-usual CPU usage or network traffic. 
Anomalies must be detected and monitored (and, in some cases, blocked or mitigated) because they can be 
the symptoms of a new, never-seen-before attack. Anomalies are usually better detected by behavioral 
analysis, such as rate-based IPS signatures, DoS policies, and protocol constraints inspection.
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IPS on FortiGate uses signature databases to detect known attacks. Protocol decoders can also detect 
network errors and protocol anomalies.
The IPS engine is responsible for most of the features shown in this lesson: IPS and protocol decoders. It’s 
also responsible for application control, flow-based antivirus protection, web filtering, email filtering, and flow-
based DLP in one-arm sniffer mode.
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How does the IPS engine determine if a packet contains an attack or anomaly?
Protocol decoders parse each packet according to the protocol specifications. Some protocol decoders 
require a port number specification (configured on the CLI), but usually, the protocol is automatically detected. 
If the traffic doesn’t conform to the specification—if, for example, it sends malformed or invalid commands to 
your servers—then the protocol decoder detects the error.
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By default, an initial set of IPS signatures is included in each FortiGate firmware release. FortiGuard updates 
the IPS signature database with new signatures. That way, IPS remains effective against new exploits. Unless 
a protocol specification or RFC changes (which doesn’t happen very often), protocol decoders are rarely 
updated. The IPS engine itself changes more frequently, but still not often.
FortiGuard IPS service updates the IPS signatures most often. The FortiGuard research team identifies and 
builds new signatures, just like antivirus signatures. So, if your FortiGuard Services contract expires, you can 
still use IPS. However, just like antivirus scans, IPS scans become increasingly ineffective the longer the 
signatures go without being updated—old signatures won’t defend against new attacks.
The default auto-update schedule for FortiGuard packages has been updated. Previously, the frequency was 
a reoccurring random interval within two hours. Starting in FortiOS 7.0, the frequency is automatic, and the 
update interval is calculated based on the model and percentage of valid subscriptions. The update interval is 
within one hour.
For example, an FG-501E has 78% valid contracts. Based on this device model, FortiOS calculates the 
update schedule to be every 10 minutes. You can verify the system event logs, which are generated 
approximately every 10 minutes.
IPS is a FortiGuard subscription, and includes botnet signature database. The botnet IP database is part of 
the ISDB updates. The botnet domains database is part of the AV updates, only the botnet signaturesrequire 
the FortiGuard IPS license subscription.
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The IPS signature database is divided into the regular and extended databases. The regular signature 
database contains signatures for common attacks whose signatures cause rare or no false positives. It's a 
smaller database, and its default action is to block the detected attack.
The extended signature database contains additional signatures for attacks that cause a significant 
performance impact, or don’t support blocking because of their nature. In fact, because of its size, the 
extended database is not available for FortiGate models with a smaller disk or RAM. But, for high-security 
networks, you might be required to enable the extended signatures database. 
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After FortiGate downloads a FortiGuard IPS package, new signatures appear in the signature list. When 
configuring FortiGate, you can change the Action setting for each sensor that uses a signature. 
The default action setting is often correct, except in the following cases:
• Your software vendor releases a security patch. Continuing to scan for exploits wastes FortiGate 
resources.
• Your network has a custom application with traffic that inadvertently triggers an IPS signature. You can 
disable the setting until you notify Fortinet so that the FortiGuard team can modify the signature to avoid 
false positives.
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There are two ways to add predefined signatures to an IPS sensor. One way is to select the signatures 
individually. After you select a signature in the list, the signature is added to the sensor with its default action. 
Then, you can right-click the signature and change the action.
The second way to add a signature to a sensor is using filters. FortiGate adds all the signatures that match 
the filters.
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You can also add rate-based signatures to block specific traffic when the threshold is exceeded during the 
configured time period. You should apply rate-based signatures only to protocols you actually use. Then, 
configure Duration to block malicious clients for extended periods. This saves system resources and can 
discourage a repeat attack. FortiGate does not track statistics for that client while it is temporarily blocklisted.
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When the IPS engine compares traffic with the signatures in each filter, order matters. The rules are similar to 
firewall policy matching; the engine evaluates the filters and signatures at the top of the list first, and applies 
the first match. The engine skips subsequent filters.
So, position the most likely matching filters, or signatures, at the top of the list. Avoid making too many filters, 
because this increases evaluations and CPU usage. Also, avoid making very large signature groups in each 
filter, which increase RAM usage.
In the event of a false-positive outbreak, you can add the triggered signature as an individual signature and 
set the action to Monitor. This allows you to monitor the signature events using IPS logs, while investigating 
the false-positive issue.
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Sometimes it is necessary to exempt specific source or destination IP addresses from specific signatures. 
This feature is useful during false-positive outbreaks. You can temporarily bypass affected endpoints until you 
investigate and correct the false-positive issue.
You can configure IP exemptions on individual signatures only. Each signature can have multiple exemptions.
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When you create a new entry to add signatures or filters, you can select the action by clicking Action.
Select Allow to allow traffic to continue to its destination. Select Monitor to allow traffic to continue to its 
destination and log the activity. Select Block to silently drop traffic matching any of the signatures included in 
the entry. Select Reset to generate a TCP RST packet whenever the signature is triggered. Select Default to 
use the default action of the signatures.
Quarantine allows you to quarantine the attacker’s IP address for a set duration. You can set the quarantine 
duration to any number of days, hours, or minutes.
If you enable Packet logging, FortiGate saves a copy of the packet that matches the signature.
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You can configure the hold time option for the IPS signature filter. The hold-time option allows you to set the 
amount of time that signatures are held after a FortiGuard IPS signature update per VDOM. During the 
holding period, the signature mode is Monitor. The new signatures are enabled after the hold time, to avoid 
false positives.
The hold time can be from 0 days and 0 hours (default) up to 7 days.
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IPS signature filter options include the CVE pattern. The CVE pattern option allows you to filter IPS signatures 
based on CVE IDs or with a CVE wildcard, ensuring that any signatures tagged with that CVE are 
automatically included.
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Since the botnet database is part of the FortiGuard IPS contract, administrators can enable scanning of botnet 
connections to maximize their internal security. You enable botnet scanning on the IPS profile that you applied 
the firewall policy on. You can also enable scanning of botnet connections using the CLI.
There are three possible actions for botnet and C&C:
• Disable: Do not scan connections to botnet servers
• Block: Block connections to botnet servers
• Monitor: Log connections to botnet servers
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To apply an IPS sensor, you must enable IPS and then select the sensor in a firewall policy. By default,
FortiGate logs all security events. This means you can see any traffic that is being blocked by IPS. 
If you think some traffic should be blocked but is passing through the policy, you should change the Log 
Allowed Traffic method to All Sessions. This will log all traffic processed by that firewall policy, and not just 
the traffic that is blocked by the security profiles. This can help you in identifying false negative events.
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If you enabled security events logging in the firewall policies that apply IPS, you can view IPS events by 
clicking Log & Report > Intrusion Prevention. The Intrusion Prevention log menu appears only if 
FortiGate has matched attack attempts with IPS signatures.
You should review IPS logs frequently. The logs are an invaluable source of information about the kinds of 
attacks that are being targeted at your network. This helps you develop action plans and focus on specific 
events, for example, patching a critical vulnerability.
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Good job! You now understand the IPS on FortiGate.
Now, you willlearn about DoS.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in Denial of Service (DoS), you should be able to protect your network from 
common DoS attacks.
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So far, you have learned about signatures that match illegal commands and invalid protocol implementations.
Those are easy to confirm as attacks.
What about attacks that function by exploiting asymmetric processing or bandwidth between clients and 
servers? 
The goal of a DoS attack is to overwhelm the target—to consume resources until the target can’t respond to 
legitimate traffic. There are many ways to accomplish this. High-bandwidth use is only one type of DoS attack. 
Many sophisticated DoS attacks, such as Slowloris, don’t require high bandwidth.
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To block DoS attacks, apply a DoS policy on a FortiGate that is located between attackers and all the 
resources that you want to protect. 
DoS filtering is done early in the packet handling process, which is handled by the kernel.
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In TCP, the client sends a SYN packet to initiate a connection. The server must respond with a SYN/ACK 
packet, and save the connection information in RAM while it waits for the client to acknowledge with an ACK 
packet. Legitimate clients ACK quickly and begin to transmit data. But malicious clients continue to send more 
SYN packets, half-opening more connections, until the server’s connection table is full. Once the server’s 
table is full, it can’t accept more connections and begins to ignore all new clients.
ICMP is used during troubleshooting: devices respond with success or error messages. However, attackers 
can use ICMP to probe a network for valid routes and responsive hosts. By doing an ICMP sweep, the 
attacker can gain information about your network before crafting more serious exploits.
Attackers use port scanning to determine which ports are active on a system. The attacker sends TCP SYN 
requests to varying destination ports. Based on the replies, the attacker can map out which services are 
running on the system, and then proceed to exploit those services.
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An individual DoS attack is a flood of traffic coming from a single address. It can originate from the internet, or 
even from your internal network. Typically, a single device makes many connections or sessions, and possibly 
uses much bandwidth to connect to a single location. A variation of this is the distributed denial of service 
attack, or DDoS. It has many of the same characteristics as an individual DoS attack, but the main difference 
is that multiple devices are all attacking one destination at the same time.
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You can apply DoS protection to four protocols: TCP, UDP, ICMP, and SCTP. And, you can apply four 
different types of anomaly detection protocols:
• A flood sensor detects a high volume of that specific protocol, or signal in the protocol.
• A sweep/scan detects probing attempts to map which of the host ports respond and, therefore, might be 
vulnerable.
• Source signatures look for large volumes of traffic originating from a single IP address.
• Destination signatures look for large volumes of traffic destined for a single IP address.
When you implement DoS for the first time, if you don’t have an accurate baseline for your network, be careful 
not to completely block network services. To prevent this from happening, configure the DoS policy initially to 
log, but not block. Using the logs, you can analyze and identify normal and peak levels for each protocol. 
Then, adjust the thresholds to allow normal peaks, while applying appropriate filtering. 
The threshold for flood, sweep, and scan sensors are defined as the maximum number of sessions or packets 
per second. The thresholds for source and destination sensors are defined as concurrent sessions. 
Thresholds that are too high can exhaust your resources before the DoS policies trigger. Thresholds that are 
too low will cause FortiGate to drop normal traffic.
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Good job! You now understand how to protect your network from DoS attacks on FortiGate.
Now, you will learn about WAF.
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After completing this section, you should be able to achieve the objectives shown on this slide.
By demonstrating competence in WAF, you should be able to apply the correct WAF inspection to protect the 
servers in your network.
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What is a WAF and why do you need it? 
Some FortiGate features are meant to protect clients, not servers. For example, FortiGuard web filtering 
blocks requests based on the category of the server web pages. Antivirus prevents clients from accidentally 
downloading spyware and worms. Neither protects a server (which doesn’t send requests—it receives them) 
from malicious scripts or SQL injections. Protecting web servers requires a different approach because they 
are subject to other kinds of attacks. This is where WAF applies.
The WAF feature is available only in proxy inspection mode.
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Take a look at some examples of attacks that target web applications specifically.
One type of attack is called cross-site scripting (XSS). If a web application doesn’t sanitize its inputs and reject 
JavaScript, it ends up storing the XSS attack in its database. Then, when other clients request the page that 
reuses that data, the JavaScript is now embedded in the page. 
JavaScript can do many things with a page, including rewriting the whole page and making its own requests. 
This is the basic mechanism of asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) apps. In this case, XSS causes 
innocent clients to transmit to a different server that is controlled by the attacker. This could, for example, 
transmit credit card information or passwords from an HTTP form to the attacker.
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Another very common web attack is a SQL injection. Just like an XSS attack, the root cause of a SQL 
injection is that the web application doesn’t sanitize input. If the attacker enters a SQL query into an input, 
such as an HTML form, the web app simply accepts it, and passes it along to the database engine, which 
accidentally runs the query.
The SQL language can do anything to the data. It can, for example, download the table of users so that the 
attacker can run a password cracker. A query could add new entries for new administrator login attempts, or 
modify login attempts, blocking administrators from logging in.
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One component of a WAF profile is WAF signatures. WAF signatures work in the same way as IPS 
signatures. FortiGate can act on the traffic that matches any of them. Some WAF